Avengers vs The Supreme Being
by SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: What if the power inside the infinity stones actually belonged to someone before the stones were created? What if that person was asleep for a very long time, but just woke up and wants to get her powers back? Will the Avengers help her in exchange for her help, or will they decide that the stones are better off being hidden away in the depths of space? (sorry, not a good summary)
1. Chapter 1

**So this is my first Avengers fanfiction . I hope that it is worthy of being read, considering it was written by such a sleep deprived mind. But I've been playing around with the idea for a while, and hopefully it's okay. Please read and enjoy and review :)**

**A/N I do not own anything from Marvel **

Thanos looked at his cowering subordinate with a mocking grin. He was in a good mood, since he had just obtained his third infinity stone. If he had been in a foul mood, that subordinate would be nothing more than a pile of ashes right now. But since he was pleased with how quickly he was gaining power, he decided to hear out the poor man. He spoke in his booming voice, the one that was known for sending even the toughest men bawling for their mothers. "What?"

The man stood there meekly for a moment, unsure what exactly he should say. He finally chose to go with the truth. "Sir, the stones… they're all… um... talking…"

"Bring them to me." The man nodded and scurried off. He returned within the hour, three different containers in his hand. Even through the cases, Thanos could hear the muffled voices. He snatched the containers and opened them all, taking in the beautiful sight of all the power sitting on his lap.

As soon as they were free, there was a hologram coming from the different colored stones, green, yellow and orange. The holograms all looked exactly the same, and moved in sync with each other. It was a man, dressed in viking garb, so Thanos knew him to be an Asgardian. The holograms all flickered in the same places as well. He watched the man speak.

"_This is a warning to any who hold one of these infinity gems in their possession. They are immensely powerful and dangerous in the right hands, and in the wrong hands, they could mean the end of existence as we know it. If this message is playing, then three of the gems have been united. That means that a powerful enemy could be awakened, and will stop at nothing to regain possession of these gems. I hope that it has been awhile since we entrapped her, so that our sacrifices were not in vain. Please, re-scatter these gems throughout the universe, do not allow them to fall into the hands of-" _The hologram flickered. "_-ever. You must take this warning seriously. The future of the universe, and everything beyond, depends on your next choice." _The hologram flickered again, and then disappeared. Thanos frowned. With three of the stones in his possession, there was no one alive who could even hope to take him on.

Thor frowned at the completion of the message. He was unaware that he was seeing the same thing that one of his most powerful enemies was seeing, as well as a curious collector and a protector of the gem on Xandar. This meant that someone, somewhere, had three of the stones in their possession.

He turned and left the vault. He wanted to return to earth and discuss this with the other Avengers. Maybe they would know how to solve this problem. He made sure the doors were closed and properly guarded before heading to the bifrost.

Less than a minute after he left, there was a soft thump coming from inside the vault, too quiet for the guards to hear. The pounding continued, and if anyone was in the room, they would have been shocked to realize that the sound was coming from one of the large stone coffins that had been in the room for as long as anyone could remember.

There was an annoyed curse, and more pounding. The person inside the confined space was exhausted and frustrated. Even though this coffin was sealed with a spell, she should have been able to easily remove the lid. Or at least punch through the thick stone until there was a big enough space to crawl out. And there was an insistent buzzing in the back of her mind, like something was trying to catch her attention.

But she felt helpless and weak. As she pounded against her prison, she felt a sharp stinging on her hands, something she had never experienced before. She tried to inspect her hands but there wasn't even a drop of light inside. But she could feel the sticky liquid on her hands, and her eyes widened in surprise. If she didn't know any better, she would say that was blood. And that would make the strange sensation pain.

She sighed. She did know better. She couldn't bleed, she couldn't feel pain. She never had before, so why would she magically… her thoughts trailed off as she remembered the moments leading up to her imprisonment. She felt the anger surge through her. Those damned Asgardians! She would get her revenge.

It had taken over a thousand of them just to contain her long enough to strip away her powers and lock them inside some colored rocks. The last thing she had heard before she fell asleep was the leader of those 'gods' saying that she would wake up when there was a chance for her to change. She snorted. They wanted her to change, they wanted her to become a 'better person' by stealing everything she valued and then locking her away?

She shoved against the stone, but it was useless. The stinging in her hands were back, and now that she had identified it as pain, she knew that she never wanted to feel it again. If this is what everyone else felt when they were injured, then she felt sorry for them. Well, if those idiots truly believed that she could change, then maybe they would start by letting her out.

She screamed until her throat was raw and her voice was scratchy, and the feeling of pain returned, so she decided to stop. She took a deep breath. There had to be some way out. The Asgardians knew that she would wake up eventually, and it would be without her powers, and they wouldn't want her to be trapped forever.

There was enough room inside for her to turn over on her stomach, but it was a tight fit. She shoved as hard as she could, and to her surprise, she felt a little bit of give. She shoved some more, and she felt the strain in her elbows, but she kept pushing. After what seemed like hours, she had finally moved back the stone a centimeter, and that was just enough to let in a sliver of light.

She realized that she must have been pushing against the floor before, somehow she had been upside down. Maybe it was those damned Asgardians' version of a joke. At this rate, it was going to take forever to get out. But maybe that tiny opening was enough to get her voice through. She gulped a few times, then screamed for some help. A couple of minutes passes, but there was still no response.

She jammed her arms against the heavy lid over and over, even after she could feel the slick blood dripping onto her face. Soon there was almost an inch of space, and she gulped in the fresh air. It was much better than the stale air that she had woken up with. The light was blinding, and it took her almost an hour to adjust.

But this small victory was just that: small. So after that little break, she began to push again, immediately reopening the scrapes that had just stopped bleeding. She didn't care. It was worth it if it meant she could get out. And as long as she focused solely on her escape, she could push the pain to the back of her thoughts, and almost pretend like it wasn't even there.

Once there was enough space to slip her fingers through, it got easier. She gripped the edge of the lid as tightly as she could, and pushed from the side. It made her arm bend at an awkward angle, but that wasn't important. It was another half hour before the lid was pushed back far enough. She turned sideways to sit her shoulders through, and slowly stood up.

She looked around once she had stepped out of the coffin. There was so much light everywhere, it was a painful assault on her eyes that had been emerged in darkness for so long. She blinked and turned her head slowly. Her entire body felt stiff from lying on stone for who knows how long.

She looked down at her hands. She had known she was bleeding, but this was much worse than what she had expected. They looked like the mangled chew toy of a fierce mutt. She chuckled as she recalled past experiences with letting dogs chomp on flesh, though it had never been her own. She frowned. Had that hurt those people as much as this was hurting her?

She shrugged off the feeling. There was nothing she could do to change the past even if she wanted to, which she didn't. She stretched carefully, not wanting to abuse her already sore muscles. She felt like she had depleted all her energy, and just want to close her eyes. This must what was known as tired.

She glanced around, but saw no threats in the room. There were no people inside, just shelves full of things, and most of them looked fairly useless. Then that buzzing from earlier got louder, and took up more space in her head. She could feel herself being drawn over to a golden pedestal. Resting on it was a glowing blue cube, and she reaches out to grab it.

As soon as she touched it, feelings of recognition rushed through her, and she knew exactly what was in the cube. But there was something blocking it off from her. She groaned as she recalled some of the Asgardian's words. "_Each of these gems has a different strand of your power inside. You'll never be able to get any back unless you can reunite all six of them. And I doubt that'll ever happen. You may change someday, but I don't think there will ever be a time that anyone deserves the amount of power you have."_

She cursed the Asgardian again. Well, at least her collection was off to a good start. One down, five to go, and she didn't even know where she was yet. She looked down at her clothes. She was still wearing what she had been that day, and for all she knew it could have been just yesterday. But even if it felt like more time than just a day had passed, her clothes were still immaculate other than a few blood drops on her tunic.

She even still had the pouch that was tied around her waist, and she slipped the blue cube into the leather satchel. Then she straightened, and went to the door hesitantly. She had no idea what she was walking into, and in this vulnerable state, she had to be careful. Well, no matter how long she had been trapped, she still looked the same, so she should be able to pull off a decent story.

She smeared the blood from her hands over her face and shirt. She made sure that the bag was securely hidden in the folds of her skirt, and she gulped. She was already experiencing so many things that had never affected her before, and she thought that perhaps those experiences would extend to death. She had always been immortal, invincible, but she had also never bled before, so she wasn't sure what to think.

There was a tiny flutter in her stomach, perhaps what most would consider fear. She had never felt afraid before, because she had never been able to get hurt or die, and she was always the most powerful one in the room. She shivered. They were either going to believe her or not, but either way, it would be best to get this over with.

She pushed on the giant doors, but the didn't budge. She rammed her shoulder against them, and that must have been loud enough for the guards outside the room to hear. The doors slowly opened, and she stumbled out. It wasn't even an act for the most part, she really did feel dead on her feet. She saw two Asgardians, and she wanted nothing more than to smite them where they stood. But that clearly wasn't an option at the moment. Instead, she went with what her exhausted body demanded, and she passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

**So I know this is all random, and made up. But maybe it isn't the worst thing you've ever read. Please read and enjoy :)**

**A/N I don't own anything from the marvel universe**

She blinked a few times, and closed her eyes again when she saw the room she was in swimming around her. That had never happened before, and it made her feel sick to the stomach, which was also a first. She took a few deep breaths, and concentrated on listening to the conversation that was fairly audible.

"-he vault. I personally checked it all over several times before locking up, and she came from inside the room. The blood on the inside of that tomb matches what it would look like if someone was trying that hard to escape. I'm telling you, she must have been inside that coffin."

A gruffer voice spoke next. "That is impossible. That casket has been in here longer than I can even remember. I think it was in there before I was even born. There's no way for any person to survive that long."

She gulped. They were talking about her. And she could that they were Asgardians. Just something about them, she knew it without even looking. But seriously, how long had she been in there? The meaner guy made it sound like it had been a very long time. But it couldn't have been that long. In her current state, there was no way she could survive longer than a day or two, since she was pretty sure mortals and Asgardians alike required sustenance.

Well, putting off the introductions wouldn't make the dread in her stomach go away, and the sooner she adjusted to this new way of seeing things, the sooner she wouldn't feel like puking. She opened her eyes, and waited a moment for the room to steady itself. Then she sat up, though her arms were barely supporting her at all.

She recognized that they were talking in all speak, which was interesting. The Asgardians that she remembered only spoke in their native tongue, so when had they evolved like this? She cleared her throat. Maybe she should talk in some obscure language just to throw them off. She decided to go with Aedian. "How long do you plan on standing around talking about me?"

She looked closer at the two men. One was old, and he had an eye patch covering one eye. He had an air of authority about him. The other was younger, with long blonde hair and a friendly smile. He had a large hammer swinging from his hip, and she recognized it as Mjolnir, and she wondered how such a powerful weapon had fallen into the hands of that Asgardian who looked like a complete dunce.

The younger one's eyes widened as he realized that she wasn't speaking in any language he had heard before. The older one was better at hiding his shock, but she could still see it. She laughed. She couldn't let them know how weak she was, even if they had already guessed, so she would just act as high above them as possible.

The older one frowned. "What is your name?"

She let the edges of her mouth slide down. No one had asked her name in a very long time. They had always given her names, always different depending on where she was, and they never bothered to ask if she already had one. She thought of all the names she had been given in the past. "You may call me... Miriam." She laughed again. "You look like you've never seen a girl before."

The old man continued to speak, and the younger one seemed to know his place. He stayed silent. "How did you get into the vault?"

Miriam raised one eyebrow. So she had been a vault? This just kept getting better and better. "I have no idea. One day I'm going about my own business, not minding anyone but myself. The next thing I know, I'm waking up in that stone box of death."

So it wasn't exactly true. But they didn't need to know that. The older one's frown deepened. "That coffin has been sealed and collecting dust in that room since before I was born. My sons used to dare each other to open it, but they never could. Now you are claiming that you have been inside the entire time? How would you have survived for over ten thousand years?"

Miriam's eyes widened. "Wow. I mean, I thought I must have been in there for a while, but ten thousand years? That's just cruel. That's like an entire fiftieth of my life!"

The old man did not looked like he believed her at all. "You are now claiming to be half a million years old? That is quite impossible. And how do you know Aedian? It is a dead language."

Miriam grinned. She switched to one of the elven dialects. "Because I was around when it was still alive, silly. So, what's your name?"

The man didn't looked amused. "I am Odin Borson, ruler of Asgard. Now who are you really?"

Miriam didn't let her distress show on her face. This situation couldn't really get any worse at this point. If she still had all her power, she would turn this Odin guy into dust right where he stood. But as it was, she could barely move. At least her brain still worked. In her time, all speak had been a rare gift. But she had never needed to use it. After being alive for long enough, she found that she knew every language there was.

Which was now a good thing, since all speak was a type of magic, and it was gone with the rest of her power. But she could still switch between any languages or dialects she pleased, mid sentence if she wanted to. "I already told you, I'm Miriam. If you don't want to believe me, that's your choice."

She was disappointed to learn that she was still on Asgard. Those Asgardians who imprisoned her hadn't even thought of her of enough of a threat that she needed to be tossed out into space or something. But by now, those guys must all be dead, even if any of them had survived her entrapment. The ruler was usually the oldest and if this guy was ten thousand, then that mean there was probably no one left who had been around when she had been locked up.

That was annoying. Now she wouldn't get the satisfaction of slaughtering them all herself. But on the bright side, they were dead. Probably. That saved her the trouble of figuring out a way to do it with her newly weak body. Odin looked really grumpy, and Miriam laughed again. She couldn't help it, this guy was just so easy to laugh at.

She turned her attention to the younger man. He was looking at her with open curiosity. "What's your name?"

He looked a little surprised that she had spoken directly to him. He glanced at Odin, and the older man gave him a terse nod. The blonde looked back at Miriam. "I am Thor Odinson."

"Cool. So he's your dad. That's interesting. You don't look like the old man at all."

Odin growled. "You will show respect towards me and my family while you are in our realm."

Miriam raised her hands in mock surrender, and even though just the small action burned her muscles like crazy, it was worth it to see Odin's face turn purple. "Geez, okay. Respect. Total respect for you, man."

Thor looked more confused. "You speak like one from modern day Midgard. How would that be possible if you have been inside a coffin for so long?"

She wiggled her eyebrows. "I read your mind, obviously." Thor took a step back, and he didn't remove his gaze. It seemed like he actually believed her. This was good. Gullible Asgardians would make it easier to get around. "I can do a large number of things you would hardly believe."

Odin took a deep breath, and his face slowly returned to its original hue. He glanced at Thor. "Go retrieve your brother. He would know more about magic, if she is even telling the truth."

Miriam nodded casually. "Oh, she is."

She wasn't sure who Thor's brother was, since all these people were babies compared to her, but if he was an expert in sorcery or something, he would be able to confirm that she did have magic, but she lost it. Then maybe they would feel bad for her, and help her find the rest. She brushed her hand across her skirt on the pretense of unwrinkling it, but she was actually checking to make sure she still had her pouch. It was there, with a lump that was the right shape to be the blue cube.

Odin stared at her for a few minutes while they waited for Thor to return. She stared right back, knowing that she couldn't show this man any sign of weakness. Just when she thought she would have to break away from their little blinking contest, Thor returned. There was another boy with them, and he was tall and blue and had jet black hair. Maybe by brother Odin had meant shield brother, because there's no way those two could be related by blood.

The stranger stepped forward, and Miriam assessed him quickly. He had a quiet, dangerous look, and clever too. He could be a problem if he was around when she tried to trick these foolish gods. So she decided to go for distraction. Anything would work really, but she had a gut feeling about what would work best. She'd always had a talent for knowing just how to get to people.

"What are you supposed to be?"

The newcomer immediately stiffened, and she grinned. She had hit the mark. He stared at her with icy red eyes. "I don't know what you mean by that."

She shrugged. "Well, you're obviously not an Asgardian. But I can't think of any races that look like you. It must be newer, just came around since I've been asleep. So what are you?"

Thor stepped forward, and he shot a glare to Miriam. "He is my brother."

Miriam looked unimpressed. "Why is your brother blue, with red eyes? I've never seen any Asgardian like that before."

The blue one glanced down at himself, like he was shocked that Miriam figured out his was blue. She almost gasped as she realized what happened. She had always had eyes that could only see the truth. That was part of why it was so easy to hate people. But apparently that wasn't from magic, since it would seem that she still had that ability. She grinned. So he didn't look blue and evil to other people. That was interesting.

"How…?"

Miriam wiggled her eyebrows again. Maybe he wouldn't be any more difficult than the other two. "I can read your mind, of course. Just ask your… brother. He can confirm that."

The man shook his head, like he was clearing his mind. "I doubt that you can even walk right now, let alone read my mind. I can feel it, very powerful magic on you, but it's just residue. There's none of the actual power left. What happened to it?"

Miriam pouted for a moment. Then she decided that she could tell them at least part of the truth. As soon as she got her powers back, she was going to destroy all these Asgardians. It didn't matter that it was their ancestors and not them that had wronged her, she wanted to avenge herself. And the destruction of an entire planet wasn't that a big a deal. After all, she had done it before.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you Elvira Silver for leaving a review. It inspired me to write the next chapter immediately. I hope you like it.**

Miriam took a moment to decide exactly how much she should tell the Asgardians and other company. Should she mention how her power was locked away in six different stones that held more power than they could comprehend? The stones now held whatever power had been in them when they were first created, along with Miriam's power. Though hers was locked away inside the stones, and no one else would be able to get to that stuff.

Should she tell them how she was locked away after blowing up a few planets in a bored snit? Should she tell them about Ar'iaal? No… there was no way that bringing him into this would change anything. She took a deep breath. "I have been in that tomb all this time. I was locked away in there by those who feared me." She looked at the blue one. She could sense that he would be the easiest to appeal to. "They feared me because I held more power than them, and they couldn't control me. So they gathered a large group of sorcerers, and seeped my power from me. Then the proceeded to lock me up."

She could see the blue one soften at the mention of being feared. It was good to know that she hadn't lost her ability to practically see right through people. That would be especially handy now that manipulation seemed to be the only defense those damned Asgardians had left her with.

The blue one and the blond one both turned to look at the older one. "She is not lying… but she is not telling the whole truth. She is very amusing, even if her body seems to be an empty shell that was once filled with greatness. Can we keep her?"

Miriam narrowed her eyes. "I'm not some wild animal to be made into your pet. I need to track down the objects that contain my powers, and restore myself to my former glory."

Thor shook his head. "There must have been a good reason for people to have feared you. What did you do with your powers to frighten them into taking such drastic action?"

Miriam scowled. "Of course you assume that I was at fault. I made the terrible mistake of being born, and I'm sorry, but I never did anything to harm those Asgardians."

Odin tilted his head. "The ones who imprisoned you were Asgardians? Interesting."

Miriam shook her head, and kept her attention on Thor. "You must understand. I need to get my powers back, so that…" She took a deep breath. The separation between her and Ar'iaal had started long before she had been imprisoned. But Thor seemed to be the follow your heart type of guy. "...so that I can find the one I love."

Like she thought he would, Thor got an interested look. "What is the name of this person?"

Miriam sighed. They really didn't want to let her off easy on this one, did they? "His name is Ar'iaal. He was around before me, but I've known him since birth. He is the most important person to me."

Thor got a wistful look. "I can hear the truth in your voice. I know how you feel. I, too, and separated from the one who shares my affections."

The blue one got an almost undetectable suspicious look. Miriam internally sighed with frustration. He seemed to realize that there was something strange about the fact that she had just so easily appealed to both brothers, even though they were obviously very different. She looked at him. "Do you have a name? Or shall I call you 'the blue one' until the end of eternity?"

He scowled. "My name is Loki."

Miriam grinned. "I like it. I don't know if it's still a common practice among Asgardians, to name children after ancestors. But if it is, then I know exactly who you're named after." "_And I now feel a sudden hatred towards you." _She finished in her head as she saw a picture in her mind of the leader of the Asgardians who had locked her away.

Loki nodded stiffly. "I see. And you are…?"

"Oh, right, you weren't here for the introductions. You can call me Miriam." She turned to look at Odin. It wouldn't matter that she had the boys on her side if he was still unwilling to assist. "So? Will you help me retrieve my stolen power? Please?"

The old man frowned. "If you will excuse me, I must seek counsel with those I trust. I shall return before night falls to tell you what I've decided. Thor, come with me." And he strode away purposefully, the eager blond on his tail.

Loki stayed, giving Miriam a curious look. Once his father and brother were out of earshot, he spoke. "So who are you really?"

Miriam raised her eyebrows and plastered a shocked expression on her face. "What are you saying, good sir? That I have told a mistruth?"

Loki shook his head. "There's obviously more to you, and it is a very important part. Yes, people fear what they cannot understand or control, but that feeling of misunderstanding or lack of control would not arise if one does not strike first and demonstrate their power. So who are you really?"

Miriam frowned, and wrinkled up her nose like she could smell something rotten. "I take it that you speak from experience. Do people fear you because you look so different?"

Loki shook his head. "You do not have enough energy, magic or not, to read my mind, even if you do still possess that power even though everything else is gone. So tell me how you can see past what everyone else sees."

Miriam shrugged, and bit her lip. "I guess I never really thought about how much my sight differs from that of most people. I have a strange thing, I can always see the truth. Whether it is in words, or pictures, or facial expressions, I will always know what's real. So I don't see past whatever facade you're wearing, I don't even see it in the first place."

Loki sighed. "Alright, but that still doesn't explain who are. You clearly know more about me already than most people I'll ever meet, so I think I am at the disadvantage. Please, tell me more. And do keep in mind, whatever you were before, whatever you had before, you don't have anymore. You are so weak compared to any common Asgardian."

The girl blinked. "Did you just threaten me? Because that seriously sounded like a threat. Well, I guess it won't kill me to tell you a little bit more. I was probably never mentioned in history because the Asgardians were ashamed of me, and wanted me just to be on the safe side, I won't tell you anything that I wouldn't want everyone to know. You just get to know first because you asked first." She leaned back, not wanting her arms to give out on her while she was in the presence of this powerful man.

"Well, at least tell me something that I can't find out on my own."

Miriam shrugged. "I think that I can handle that. Alright, you asked who I am. That would include what I am. I know that my people were around long before the Asgardians, the first Asgardian was half of whatever I am. Honestly, if we had an actual name, it's been forgotten hundreds of thousands of years ago. Once the Asgardians were flourishing, they began to grow jealous of the power that we hold, more than you can even imagine. In the end, I think there was supposed to be some kind of great war. But there's no way the Asgardians could have won. Which leaves no explanation as to what happened to my people. All I know is that in the end, me and Ar'iaal, my best friend, were on our own, with only each other for company. We made ourselves scarce, so that the Asgardians wouldn't be angry with us."

"Yeah, like that worked out so well," Loki interrupted.

Miriam continued on like she hadn't heard him. "So our people, whatever they are,

cannot die. But we can be crippled by extreme emotional traumas. Ar'iaal and I got into a major fight. He wanted to go out into the universe and search for the rest of our people. He said that it was practically our duty. But they had abandoned us, so we had no reason to bother looking for them. Our argument kept escalating, and neither of us were even sure quite what we were arguing about. In the end… he struck me. It was something he had never done before. He immediately regretted it, as did I for starting the fight, but he wouldn't listen when I said that I didn't hate him. He fell into a deep comatose state, something our people can do to preserve ourselves until a time where we can be emotionally stable. he left me completely alone. I don't know how long he's slept for, but I know that he must be awake by now. I need to find him and make sure he knows that I don't hate him."

Loki was quiet for a minute. Then he spoke. "If you were, well, the way you are right now, this level of weakness, and he struck you, and injured you, would you still forgive him?"

Miriam tilted her head. "What?"

"In your current state you can be physically hurt. If, when he struck you, he inflicted pain,

which you have now endured, would you still forgive him?"

Miriam frowned. She couldn't possibly imagine any world where Ar'iaal would want to hurt her. And she hadn't felt pain when he hit her back then, only the symbolism behind the action. But that didn't matter. It had been an accident, her own fault, really, and he had ended up suffering more than she did.

She sighed. But truthfully, pain was something that she hated, and now understood why

people hated her so much for inflicting pain on them. So if Ar'iaal and her found each other, and Ar'iaal did hurt her, which he wouldn't, Miriam would tell him to leave. She finally spoke. "No, if he hurt me, then I wouldn't forgive him. But he didn't hurt me. And since I won't be able to find him until my power is restored, by the time we meet again, if he dares harm me, I would hurt him so badly."

The blue one chuckled. "You are very amusing."

Miriam frowned. "I am an all-powerful being, I am not amusing, I am intimidating and frightening."

Loki shrugged. "If you insist."

She pressed her lips together until they were white. "Where did your brother and father go?"

Loki shrugged again. "I don't know. They don't include you in anything."

Miriam sighed. "That sucks." She understood what it was like to be left out. The Asgardians had held their grudges, but been polite enough to Ar'iaal and Miriam. But after Ar'iaal was gone, they just ignored her completely. It wasn't a new feeling, but it was surprising that this could be felt by others. She'd always thought it was just her. She never knew better, since she had always been alone.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Three

Odin and Thor returned after what felt like forever. Then Miriam scoffed at herself. What was forever to someone who was already five hundred thousand years old? The ruler of Asgard shook his head apologetically. "I have decided that we shall not assist you in your endeavors to restore your power. My son will take you to Midgard, where you may live out the remainder of your life."

Miriam wished so badly that she had her powers right now. She would just zap the old man into a pile of dust, and let it fall over the rainbow bridge. But right now she was powerless, weaker than even the weakest of the Asgardians. So her protest could only come in the form of words, rather than actions.

"Hey, you may not want to help me, but that doesn't mean I have to go live on Midgard. That's a stupid decision."

Odin frowned. "I do not appreciate your disrespect-"

Miriam laughed. "So there are some Asgardians who do appreciate my disrespect, right?"

Odin's face was slowly getting redder, and Miriam could help finding the whole situation amusing. Other than the part where she could smite the man where he was standing. His voice came out tight and quiet, like if he spoke any louder he would just explode. "You are being sent to Midgard, and that is very generous of me. If you continue to show such blatant disrespect, I will put you back in that tomb, and this time there will be no chance for you to escape." He turned to Thor. "Go get the Tesseract, use it to transport yourself and this girl to Midgard."

He nodded. "Yes father. Would you like me to stick around to ensure that she survives?"

Odin snorted. He somehow knew that even though Miriam didn't have her power, she was far far away from being safe. "I would like you to stick around to ensure that Midgard survives."

Thor frowned. He obviously didn't see how the small weakling was dangerous in any way, but he was vigilant when it came to the protection of his precious Earth, so he wasn't going to take any chances. He turned and left. Miriam tried to get up to follow him, but Loki held his staff out in front of her chest, blocking the way. She looked at him with annoyance, and he just shrugged.

Odin crossed his arms over his chest, and it didn't look like he was going anywhere anytime soon. Miriam rolled her eyes. She had several mocking remarks to make, most along the lines of Odin being scared of a child, but she didn't have a death wish, so she stayed quiet, as much as that pained her to do.

Thor returned after what felt like hours had passed by. Miriam kept telling herself that a few hours was nothing to someone who spent the last ten thousand years in a stone tomb, but she was very successful at convincing herself of that, especially when she was still so vulnerable. Thor had a guarded look on his face. "The Tesseract is gone."

Odin immediately had on his scary face, and his eyes flitted over to Loki. The blue man shrugged, having no idea what they were talking about. Miriam snickered. "That sucks, when your own family doesn't even trust you enough not to look your way as soon as something happens."

Loki raised one eyebrow. "I believe that when you were laying down, I noticed something of unusual shape hidden on your person. I didn't find it important at the time, but now I wonder what it is."

Miriam shrugged. "It's nothing important, I can assure you. It's not your stupid Tesseract that can apparently travel between realms."

Loki didn't seem like he was going to drop the subject. "Then what is it, exactly?"

Miriam sighed. "It's just some blue cube, so who cares?" Loki's eyes widened, and his mouth stretched at the edges. Miriam glared at him, and he burst out into laughter. He bent over, laughing so hard. Miriam growled. "What's so funny?" She didn't like being made fun of, not at all. "Come on, I like a good joke as well as the next pathetic Asgardian."

Loki managed to compose himself, though Miriam could detect more chuckles beneath the surface, ready to be let out at the littlest thing. "Do you honestly not know?" He clamped his mouth shut when he saw the girl's blank face, to prevent more laughter. "That blue cube is, in fact, the Tesseract."

Miriam jumped up when Odin spoke. The old man had somehow moved to stand right behind her. "Hand over the Tesseract."

Miriam tensed, and she automatically reached down to clutch the stone. "But it's mine."

The gods all frowned simultaneously, and it was the first time Miriam saw any resemblance between the three. Odin looked curious despite himself. "What do you mean? The Tesseract has been in our possession for many thousands of years…"

Miriam tilted her head. "How many thousands of years? Does ten sound about right?"

Odin scowled. He hated to admit that when he thought about it, that really did seem to be about right. But that was impossible. The Tesseract was an infinity stone, it didn't belong to anyone, it was just a byproduct created at the beginning of time and the universe. No one could technically own one. But the tone of her voice didn't sound possessive, just factual. Like it was simply hers, and there was no argument.

The Allfather sighed. "Hand over the Tesseract."

The girl looked like she wanted to argue further, but she knew that in the end, she was outmatched. They had had the rock for so long, anyone would believe that it was rightfully theirs, even if it was actually rightfully hers. Or at least part of it was.

Miriam started to turn around, and she noticed the gods all tense up. She rolled her eyes. "Do you mind?" Once her back was facing them, she pulled out her hidden pouch, and took out the giant glowing blue cube. She was loath to give it up so easily, since it was the only one of six that she had obtained so far.

She tucked her pouch back in, not wanting to give that secret up, even if it was small and insignificant. She turned back around and held out the Tesseract. She watched with wide as the color grew darker and darker. Odin looked confused. "It's never done that before." He grabbed it before Miriam could think of retracting her hand, and it immediately went back to it's original color as soon as it lost contact with Miriam's hand.

She raised one eyebrow. "Well, that certainly has to prove something, doesn't it?"

The god shook his head. He handed the cube to Thor, who accepted it with a guarded expression on his face. Odin glanced at Miriam with his good eye, then back at his son. "Depart now."

Thor nodded, and held out the stone in Miriam's direction. "Touch it."

Miriam frowned. "Don't we have to go over the rainbow bridge or something?"

Thor glanced at Loki. "The bifrost was destroyed, we are no longer able to travel across it, which is why we use the Tesseract instead."

Miriam looked at Loki and laughed. "Geez, you seem to be the troublemaker all the time. Doesn't that ever get tiring?"

The strange blue adopted Asgardian frowned. "You say that I'm a troublemaker? What about you? We know nothing about you. For all we know, you could have destroyed half a dozen planets and there's no way we'd ever find out, since that was ages ago at this point."

Miriam's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. "Me?" Her voice squeaked a little, and she had to clear her throat. It wouldn't do for the one who was already most suspicious about her to be suspecting her of crimes that would surely get her executed or something. "Destroy planets? That's impossible. I can't even kill a flea."

Then Loki and Odin and the whole room that the bed was in disappeared, and that really didn't feel good on her limbs, which were still more sore than she could have ever imagined before. She started coughing as dust flew up everywhere, and when she blinked a few times, she saw that their surroundings had changed.

Thor looked around with satisfaction. "It's much more freeing. The bifrost only connected to an area outside of one small town, but with the Tesseract, we can travel virtually anywhere we wish to go."

Miriam groaned from where she was lying on the ground. "This is horrible. Why does this pain even exist? How can mortals stand it?" She screamed. "EVERYTHING HURTS!"

Thor shrugged apologetically. "I'm sorry, but I will need to bring you with me." He bent down and scooped her up, one arm under her neck and one under her knees. He ignored her screeches of pain and indignation as he began to walk, carrying her as gently as he could manage. He walked for almost half an hour before Miriam's voice died down. "You're acting like a child who has gotten injured for the first time."

She was panting, as though she had just run a marathon. She spoke through clenched teeth. "I am a child who has just gotten injured for the first time. I've never gotten hurt once in my entire life, I've never been capable of being hurt before. This is… I don't even know how to describe it…"

Thor looked awed at the thought of Miram never getting hurt even once in her entire life. She bit her lip to stop herself from screaming again, and she bit down so hard that she drew blood. She could taste the coppery drops in her mouth, and she wondered what it felt like for all those people in the past who she had terrorized. She almost caught herself feeling bad for them.

To take her mind off of the pain, she needed a distraction. "Where are we going, anyways."

Thor smiled cheerfully. "A place called New York. It's great, I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do. I think that it'll be easiest to watch over you with the help of a few of my friends who live in those parts."

Miriam rolled her eyes. "I can't even walk on my own, but sure, I'm dangerous. How far is it to New York?"

Thor shrugged. "I don't know. Last time I got there on a fascinating flying machine. Right now, we're walking there from a place called the Mojave Desert. I have no idea how long the trek will take."

Miriam gasped and closed her eyes. She had a feeling that this was going to be the longest walk of her life.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

They had stopped for the night once they finally reached civilization. It had taken a few hours, and Miriam had passed out and woken up a few times already. Thor had managed to get a room at a motel, and by some coincidence, it was right across the street from an airport.

Miriam was lying on one of the two beds in her room, and tried to calculate how long it would take to walk to New York. Based off of the map that was in the back of the yellow book she found in a drawer, it was over two thousand miles away. Even at Thor's quick pace, it would probably take a month to walk all the way there.

The Asgardian returned to the room, a slight frown on his face. "I wanted to see if there were any horses available to make the trip, but unfortunately, there were not. Instead, we shall drive there." He held up a small keyring with one key hanging from it. Miriam sighed. "Well. I'm pretty sure you don't need a key to get into a carriage."

Thor shook his head. "Of course not. On Midgard they have transport called cars. You need a key to make it start."

Miriam frowned suspiciously. "And you know how to drive one of these… cars? Since when does an Asgardian prince need to learn how to get around on little Midgard?"

Thor shrugged. "Well, I may have never actually driven before… but I have been getting brief lessons from my Jane. I am confident that neither of us will get too severely injured."

Miriam took a deep breath, let it out, and closed her eyes. She silently counted to ten, then did it again in a few more languages. Why did her babysitter have to end up being the dumb one? And how was this guy ever going to be expected to run an entire planet?

The girl frowned. "I didn't realize that they would accept Asgardian money on Midgard. Did Asgard found this place or something? Because I know that it wasn't around when I went to sleep. Or maybe it was, but there was no intelligent creatures anywhere to be found, if there were creatures residing on the planet at all."

Thor shrugged again. "Don't worry, you'll learn their culture soon enough. I know that I did." He grimaced at some unknown memory, and then his carefree smile returned to his face. "Perhaps when you meet the rest of my team you'll realize how wonderful this planet really is."

Miriam looked at the god curiously. "What do you mean, your team? Are there other Asgardians on Midgard?"

Thor shook his head with a laugh. "Don't be silly. With the tesseract being the only mode of transportation between worlds, there is no possible way for others to visit this realm."

The girl crossed her arms over her chest. "Why don't you just share the tesseract, and let everyone have a chance to visit this place, if it's as great as you claim it is?"

Thor frowned. "The tesseract is a dangerous object, and should not be shared with just anyone. It is currently in the possession of the royal family, which means we can control who uses it, and that brings us a step closer to keeping this planet safe."

Miriam sighed. "What makes this hunk of rock so important to you, anyways?"

Thor smiled. "It's a precious place once you get to know it as well as I have. The people are so different than anything you've ever seen before, and they have no concept of magic at all."

Miriam snorted, and rolled over onto her side, so she was facing away from Thor. She wasn't in the mood to continue this conversation with her kidnapper. She pulled the blanket up and wrapped it around her shoulders. Thor seemed to understand her sudden need for peace, because he shut up. Either that, or he was as sleepy as his reluctant prisoner.

_Miriam woke up, and looked around. The room was completely empty. She began to, understandably, freak out. Where had everyone gone? They had all lied down together, and now there was no one else around. She struggled out from under her blankets, then looked around._

_There, in the corner, was a lump under a blanket. That meant that she wasn't the only one left. Miriam hurried over, and dropped to her knees next to the only other person in the whole place. She roughly shook him awake, and watched as her best friend kicked off his own blankets, and stood up._

_He grabbed Miriam's arms. "What's wrong? What happened?"_

_She sniffled and gestured to the room around them. Ar'iaal gasped as he saw the empty space. All of the beddings and blankets were still spread out over the hard rock floor, just like always. The only thing missing from the scene was the people themselves. _

_Ar'iaal pulled Miriam into his arms, in a tight hug. She needed to know that she hadn't been completely abandoned, and that embrace was just what she needed. And if Ar'iaal was being honest with himself, he needed the physical contact as well. "Did you see what happened? Where they went?"_

_Miriam shook her head. "No. I just woke up and they were all… gone. I don't know what happened to them."_

_Ar'iaal made comforting noises, and bent down to press a kiss against the top of her head. "Shh… shh… It'll be alright. We'll find them, and make sure that they're all safe. We're going to get them all back, I'm serious. There's no need to cry. Everything will be alright, okay."_

_Miriam nodded. She trusted Ar'iaal, and if he said that everything was going to be okay, and they were going to get their family back, then she knew it was true. Ar'iaal would never lie to his own best friend._

_Suddenly, the light coming in from outside dimmed, and the two turned to see the person who was blocking out the sun by standing right in the doorway. It was Miriam's mother, and the poor girl ran over with relief. "Oh, mother, thank everything. I wasn't sure what had happened, and I was afraid that…"_

_The woman scowled. "Do you seriously think that I came back here for you? I came back because we left something behind, and I was voted to retrieve it. I'm not sure why, but I suppose since you're already awake, this is the perfect time to tell you something rather important. Here's the thing… we don't want you. You're a freak, and we have no use for you to be among us. We figured that we should at least give you the courtesy of not having to watch us leave."_

_Ar'iaal put his hands on his hips. "And what about me? Did you decide that I'm also not good enough to be allowed to live? Even though I obviously have never done anything to make you think that I don't deserve to go with you."_

_Miriam's mother sighed. "I know how close you are with my daughter. We assumed that you would want to stay here with her. If you've changed your mind, then, by all means, come with me."_

_She snatched something up off the floor, then turned to look at Ar'iaal expectantly. He glanced at his friend, and saw her resigned expression. She had already expected that he would want to move on with the rest. It would be too lonely here, on his own, and even though the selfish part of Miriam wanted Ar'iaal to stay, she knew that that wasn't the right thing to do. And it was his decision anyways, whether or not he wanted to go."_

_Ar'iaal smiled softly. "I know that I am just being selfish, but I will stay. My place is by your daughter's side, no matter what."_

_The woman suddenly looked angry. "What is it about that… that… miscreant that makes everyone she meets fall for her every whim? Do you have no mind of your own, Ar'iaal?"_

_The boy frowned. "Don't speak about her that way. Miriam is a good person, and I… I love her. That's why I can't leave her!"_

_The woman shot a bolt of lightning at Ar'iaal. He shrugged as the electricity slid harmlessly right off of him. He laughed. "You'll have to do much better than that if you have any hopes of defeating me. As long as we all hold onto our gifts, we will always be at a stand still, and none of us will win."_

_Miriam's mom growled. "This isn't the last that you've seen of us. When the opportunity arises, I shall return."_

_The woman disappeared before either of the children could even attempt to initiate any sort of tracking device or spell. Ar'iaal pulled Miriam into his arms, and they collapsed to the floor in one drawn, hug._


	6. Chapter 6

Miriam slowly opened her eyes, and took in the dark motel room. She hadn't dreamed about Ar'iaal in thousands of years. She wondered what it was about this place that forced that painful memory to the surface. She heard a soft rustling, and rolled her eyes. "You don't have to be so quiet, I'm already awake."

The light flicked on, and Thor stood up. The bed sheets he had been lying on top of were barely wrinkled. He shrugged. "I do not require as much rest as humans do."

Miriam sighed. "Did you even sleep at all?"

Thor shrugged. "When I am uninjured, there is no purpose to sleeping." He stretched, then walked over to Miriam's bed. "Since we are both up already, we should continue on our journey. If you are still tired, you can rest in the car."

Miriam held her breath as she pushed herself into a sitting position, praying fervently that she wouldn't be in too much pain. But that was a lot to wish for, so she decided to just be satisfied with the fact that she was now able to move, even if it wasn't a lot of movement.

Thor moved to scoop her up again, but Miriam brushed him aside with a glare. If she was at all capable of doing something on her own, then she would not accept any help for it. Miriam winced as she swung her legs to the side, and pushed herself up so she was standing.

The god seemed to understand that her pride was at stake, so instead of picking her up, he followed closely behind, ready to catch her if she fell. Once they were outside, Thor pointed out the silver car that was parked in front of their room. "I considered the idea of taking the flying bird… the airplane… but I decided that this would be easier on you."

Miriam snorted. "How thoughtful of you."

Thor beamed at what he took as a compliment. "Of course. Now let us commence our trip to New York."

Miriam rolled her eyes, but she followed. Thor opened a door, and motioned for the girl to sit on the strange shiny seat. She complied, and he slammed the door shut, trapping her inside the strange metal box.

A moment later, Thor slid onto the seat next to Miriam, and closed his door. He pointed to the leather strap attached to the wall. "You need to pull that down, and insert the metal clip into the little slot right here." Miriam followed his instructions. Thor did the same, before sticking the keys into a little hole, turning them, and the car made a soft purring.

Miriam forced herself not to laugh at the gentle sound coming from such an aggressive looking beast. "So, do you even know how to get to New York?"

Thor shrugged. "Well, it can't be that hard, can it? I know the general direction…"

Miriam rolled her eyes. "If Odin wanted to kill me, he should have just had the balls to do it back in Asgard."

Thor looked confused as he backed the car out of the parking lot, and onto the road. "The All-father does not wish for your death. That is why you have been sent here. It is the best possible solution that he could think of."

The girl shook her head. Thor swerved around some furry creature that had been in the middle of the road, and then kept driving like nothing was wrong. She was gripping the edges of her seat so hard that her knuckles turned white. "I'm pretty sure that while I'm in your… care… my life is in more danger than it would be in Asgard."

The god shrugged. "I can protect you, if you are concerned for your safety. But make no mistake, I will not hesitate to do whatever it takes to protect this planet. So if you are planning on trying anything…"

Miriam scoffed. "Buddy, I think I'll postpone my plans of world domination until a later date. Like maybe one where I can breath without everything hurting."

Thor nodded, like that was a satisfactory answer for him. After a few minutes, he realized that the soft stream of random chatter had stopped, and he glanced at the girl sitting in the passenger seat. Her head was resting against the window, and her closed eyes, along with her deep breathing, gave away the fact that she was sleeping.

It made no difference one way or another, though admittedly, Thor had been looking forward to having someone to talk to during this long car ride. He wished that the tesseract had a more accurate aim, though he was grateful that he had at least landed on the right continent.

After a few hours, it started to get light out as the sun came up. Miriam mumbled something in her sleep, and Thor frowned. He listened carefully as she mumbled again. "...sorry… please don't leave… you know that wasn't… I could never blame you… I love you…" Then she frowned, and didn't look at peace the way most people did when they were sleeping.

Despite her discomfort, though, Thor couldn't help smiling to himself at that revelation. Even this tough girl had someone that she loved. Once he was reunited with the Avengers, he would try and help Miriam track down this person. The god knew how much it hurt to be separated from the person you love, and he was hopeful that a reunion would get Miriam to be happier. And happy people who were in love weren't the sort to destroy planets, so it was a win-win, as Jane would say.

After another hour had passed, Miriam yawned, and stretched her arms as far as she could, even though she was restrained by the safety belt. She was already feeling much better, and she wondered if there was some kind of magic healing agent in the air on this planet.

She saw that Thor was staring straight ahead, but the grin on his face was obvious. Miriam scowled. "What are you so happy about? The fact that we're driving ever closer to my imminent incarceration?"

Thor shook his head. "You aren't going to be imprisoned. Maybe closely watched for a while, until you can prove yourself to be trustworthy, but you won't be held captive."

Miriam shrugged, and turned to look out the window. Sometime while she had been sleeping, they had passed out of that atrocious desert, and were now driving through a small town. There were people out in the fields, taking care of cows and growing crops. It all felt rather… domestic.

The girl's stomach made a deep growling noise, and she felt a strange hollowness in her. "Hey, I think I'm… hungry?"

Thor glanced at her, then focused back on the road. "I stopped for sustenance while you were sleeping. Check the bag by your feet."

Miriam glanced down, and saw the plastic bag. She rolled her eyes. Nothing good could ever come out of the plastic bag. There were a few boxes, and a clear bottle that looked almost empty, unless it was shaken. She peered up at the god, but he was busy driving, and she didn't want to distract him so much that they got into an accident. That would be a good goal for later, but right now, she was badly injured, and probably wouldn't survive being knocked around in the beast.

She twisted off the cap, and raised the bottle to her nose so she could sniff it. It

had no distinguishable scent, and she pressed the opening to her lips, and tipped the bottle back. A cool liquid spilled into her mouth, and it had no taste, but it seemed to help quash the pains in her stomach.

The relief only lasted for a moment though, so Miriam decided that the strange liquid wasn't the sustenance. She put the lid back on to prevent spillage, and pulled out one of the boxes. She tore off the top, and found herself staring at little orange squares. A strong scent of chemicals hit her nose.

Her stomach growled more, and Miriam decided that it was a sign that this was what she was supposed to eat. She reached in and gingerly plucked up one of the squares, pinching it between her thumb and forefinger. She dropped the square into her mouth, and was hit with a strong taste of chemicals, salt, and a little bit of cheese.

She wondered if one square was enough to sate her hunger. "Um.. blondie… how many of these do I need to eat to make my stomach stop hurting?"

Thor laughed. "The whole box is just one serving. One serving is enough to fill your empty stomach."

Miriam nodded, and she held the box over her mouth. She let all of those fake squares fall into her mouth until it was full, she chewed and swallowed, then repeated the process. As soon as the box was empty, she pulled the bottle back out, and gulped down it's contents. She smiled briefly at the fact that she felt normal again.

The girl went back to staring out the window at the passing landscape, and her eyes widened as she spotted a strange thing flying next to the car, almost like it was a race, or something. It was beautiful, and Miriam laughed as it kept surging ahead, and then falling back, like it was keeping pace with her.

"Blondie… what is that?"

Thor glanced over for a quick moment, and grinned. "That's called a butterfly. They're not usually so insistent, but it seems to like you."

Miriam allowed a smile to quirk her lips at the thought that apparently there was at least one thing in the entire universe that liked her.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N So I watched Age of Ultron last night, and the scene with Vision immediately popped into my head. I felt the sudden inspiration to write another chapter of this. Sorry if it's a little longer than usual, hehe**

Miriam had to squint to make out their surroundings now that it was getting darker out. After what seemed like years of driving, the car passed through a tall gate, and then stopped. That gentle hum that Miriam had gotten used to stopped as well, and she grimaced down at the safety belt. She looked up at Thor, who was already stepping out of the car. "Wait- aren't you going to at least cut me free?"

Thor chuckled, and he closed the door behind him. A moment later, the door on Miriam's side opened, and Thor leaned in. He pointed to the red rectangle next to the girl. "Just press down on that." Miriam did, and gasped when the safety belt flew back, allowing her the freedom to exit the beast.

Once she was out, she looked around. They were standing in front of a large building, and there were a lot of people in strange clothes walking around. Thor motioned for Miriam to follow him, so she did. They got to what seemed to be the front door, and Thor pressed his hand against a small red square. A moment later, it turned green, and there was a click as the door swung open.

The Asgardian motioned for Miriam to go through first, and the door closed behind her. A moment later, there was a click as the door swung open again, and Thor entered the building. "Follow me."

Miriam sighed. "Where are we, exactly?"

Thor laughed. "This is the Avengers base. It is very cool, isn't it?"

Miriam's eyes widened as a person went flying past her. She turned her head to follow the motion, and saw the man crash into a wall at the far end of the hallway. The man who appeared to be made of metal slowly stood up, a strange grin on his face. He chuckled, and shouted towards the direction he had come from. "Alright, I get it! Your wings are more than just decorations!"

Another man zipped down the hallway, a set of metal wings attached to his back. "You bet they are." Both men suddenly froze, and they were immediately standing at attention, their weapons raised, as they stared at the girl in front of them.

Thor clapped his hands on Miriam's shoulders, but he stepped back at her large intake of breath as he remembered how extensive her injuries were. He turned to the two men. "My friends, this is Miriam. She will be staying here for a while." Thor nodded at them each as he introduced them. "This is James Rhodes and Sam Wilson."

Rhodey stepped forward, studying Miriam. The helmet over his face raised up, revealing the human underneath. "Isn't she a little young to be an Avenger?"

Miriam crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. "I'm not here to join your stupid little club. I'm here because that dumbass Odin thinks I need a babysitter. He's just frightened of me, though."

The man raised one eyebrow, and looked up at Thor. "Um… not to sound like I'm questioning your judgement or anything… but if Odin thought that she needed to be watched, doesn't that mean she's a potential danger to the world? And doesn't that make it a little… weird… to bring her right into the place where the protectors of the world are? It just doesn't really make sense."

Thor shrugged. "Nonsense. What better place to take her than into the midst of the people who have vowed to protect the Earth at all costs?" Rhodey and Sam both sighed.

Sam cleared his throat. "Have you let the Captain know that we have a… guest?"

Thor shook his head. "We were just on our way to do that."

Thor turned to walk down the hallway, and Miriam went to follow. But then her leg gave out from beneath her, and she found herself sprawled on the ground, groaning. Sam immediately sank to his knees, and began checking over her injuries. He sighed. "This is pretty bad. I think she needs to be taken to the infirmary before you do anything else."

Thor frowned, and looked down at Miriam. "I thought you said that you were alright?"

Miriam scowled. "Of course I'm alright. Just give me a hand up, and I'll be fine." Thor looked unsure, and the girl sat up on her own. "Fine, don't help me up. I'll still be fine. Besides, wouldn't you all be better off if I just dropped dead?"

Thor shook his head. "There is no honor in a death like that. And besides, as we prefer to see as little death as possible. If there is a chance to save someone, we will take it."

Miriam rolled her eyes. "Well, how heroic of you." She got to her feet, pushing aside Sam's hands that had reached out to steady her. She grumbled under her breath. "I've never felt more humiliated in my life. Which is a very long time."

Thor hesitated, but Miriam crossed her arms over her chest, and stared at him with one eyebrow raised. "Well? Am I going to meet this 'captain' or what?"

The Asgardian nodded, and continued walking down the long hallway. They passed by many people who were hurrying around, talking quickly and looking at their tablets. The place seemed like it was very busy, though Miriam had the feeling that it always looked this crowded around here.

They got to another door with a keypad, and Thor scanned his hand so the door opened, allowing them entrance. This place seemed a little quieter, though not by much. There were only four other people in there, and they all seemed deep in concentration. There were targets set up all around the room, some of them were even moving, and the four people were running around, taking down the targets, and they seemed to be working together as a team.

A moment later, the two men from the hallway burst into the room. The other occupants glanced over, and it took a minute, but soon everyone had stopped what they were doing, and they were just staring at the small girl at Thor's side. They gave him a puzzled glance.

The man in the tight blue suit walked over, pulling off his mask as he approached. "Thor… it's been a while." He glanced down at Miriam, then back up at the Asgardian. "But surely you haven't forgotten that the practice room is for Avengers only?"

Thor shook his head. "I have not forgotten. But leaving Miriam unsupervised would surely not bode well for any of us." He gestured at Miriam. "This is Miriam, my friend. My father declared that she is to live out the rest of her days on Midgard, under my watch. But as I cannot always be around, I thought it would be best for everyone to meet her, so that they could share in the responsibility of watching her."

The captain frowned. "Why would Odin want her to be watched? She must have broken some pretty serious laws."

Thor shook his head. "She is not Asgardian. But the All-father believes that she is dangerous, and is a threat to Midgard and Asgard. And the Avengers have promised to protect Midgard, which would include watching over any potential threats."

Steve and Thor both looked over when they heard the loud crash. Miriam was sitting slouched next to the wall, though she quickly scrambled back to her feet, despite the fact that that couldn't have been good for her injuries. She moved forward as quickly as possible (which wasn't all that quick) with one arm outstretched. Vision was floating above the ground, backing away just quick enough to stay out of the girl's reach.

Thor hurried over, and planted himself in front of Miriam. "What are you doing?"

Her eyes looked right past him, towards Vision. She pointed. "That's mine."

Thor turned to glance at the android quickly, then turned back to Miriam. "What's yours?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "That stone, dummy! It's one of mine!" She tried to push past him, but Thor was much stronger, at least at this current point in time, and he easily scooped up the girl. She pounded on his back with one hand while she continued to reach for the stone with the other.

Wanda walked over, a slight frown on her face. "Hey, I thought that I was the youngest on the team."

Vision scoffed at that. "I am far younger than you."

Miriam pouted. "Like I said, I'm not here to join your stupid club. And unless you're older than five hundred thousand, give or take a few years, you can still be the youngest on the team."

Wanda shook her head at Vision. "Yeah, but that doesn't count. You still have all the wisdom and intelligence of an older person."

Miriam sighed. "Yes, this is great and all, but can someone please tell the creepy red guy to hand over my stone?"

Wanda stepped closer to Thor and Miriam, a curious look on her face. "Are you really five hundred thousand years old? Because if you are, then you're looking good for your age." She closed her eyes for a minute.

Miriam's eyes widened as she felt the slight tug at the edge of her mind, the one that indicated someone was trying to sneak in and preview her thoughts. Miriam sighed. In this weakened state, there was no way that her mental defenses were up to the task of protecting her mind, and besides, if the young woman could see that Miriam was telling the truth, then maybe they would hand over the stone that was sticking out of that other guy's head. Wanda frowned as the smaller girl's life flashed before her eyes. Each moment only lasted a few seconds, even if they felt much longer than that.

_Laughing at the spot of food on her best friend's nose._

_Taking turns leaping from the highest ledge they could find, and then flying back up._

_Meeting a strange woman in a dark hood, and feeling jealous when she saw her best friend's look of admiration._

_Munching on snacks as they watched a new world being created, and watching old world die out._

_The feelings of betrayal at being abandoned. _

_The frustration and pent up anger from all of the unanswered questions._

_The sharp sting of shock that came after the slap._

_The sadness and loneliness of having no one left._

_Jumping around from planet to planet, being a complete nuisance._

_Scaring the Asgardians so badly, they decided to take action._

_Being ambushed by hundreds, maybe thousands, of those strong warriors, and _

_dragged into a grassy clearing. All of them raising their arms and chanting._

_The foreign screams following the extraction of powers, that she realized belonged to her._

_Dull looking colored stones slowly starting to glow as they were filled with power._

_Heavy limbs as blackness covered her eyes._

_Terrible nightmares full of death and destruction that never seemed to end._

_Waking up in the dark, almost like it was just another nightmare to add to the list. Screaming until her throat was raw, and pounding until her knuckles were bloody. _

_Feeling so weak, and so powerless._

_Wanting so badly to get back what had been taken from her, what was rightfully _

_hers. _

Wanda gasped, and took a few staggered steps back. She peered up at the girl who didn't look all that unusual. Then she looked at Steve. "She's not lying. The stones… really are hers."

**A/N I always have fun working on this story. And watching AOU last night got me in the spirit all of a sudden. Bonus points to anyone who can figure out who the hooded woman in Miriam's memory is :)**


	8. Chapter 8

The Avengers were all gathered around a large table, most of them unable to help sneaking glances at the rather unextraordinary looking girl. She just crossed her arms over her chest, slouched back, and glared at everyone. They had already been sitting around for a few hours, and Miriam was bored. She peered up at Thor. "So is there going to be any point in time where you make that guy give back what doesn't belong to him?"

Thor shrugged, looking more comfortable than any of the other assembled superheroes. "I do not know, Miriam. Odin considered you dangerous with none of the stones in your possession, so I cannot imagine that he would approve of us just handing one over. Besides, Vision is also a friend, and we do not know what the effects of taking the stone away would be."

Miriam's frown deepened. It was rather unfair. This was the second of her stones that she had located, yet she still had none. Miriam glanced over at Vision, and he seemed to be leaning away from her, like he was afraid that she would run over and snatch the stone. The longer that she had to sit around on this Midgard, weak and vulnerable, the more she despised those Asgardians that had taken it upon themselves to imprison her in the first place. Miriam felt a righteous sense of satisfaction at the thought that all of those jerks had died locking her up.

The Captain moved to the head of the table, and cleared his throat to get the attention of his Avengers. They all tore their eyes away from the stranger, and looked towards their leader. Steve sighed. "By now, you all know that we have a stranger among us." He nodded at Thor, then sat down.

Thor stood. "My friends, it is so good to see all of you again, after all of this time." He gestured to Miriam. "This is Miriam. My father, Odin, has exiled her to Midgard until the end of her days. Do not be fooled by the fact that she looks like a child. This girl is older than all of us combined, and she, though powerless for the moment, is indeed the rightful owner of all of the infinity stones."

Wanda stood up. "It's true. I've seen into the recesses of her mind, and I watched as the stones were filled with a power that was torn right from her body."

Thor nodded, and Wanda sat again. The Asgardian sighed. "Odin believes Miriam to be extremely dangerous. That is why he requested that the remainder of her life be closely watched. If she does somehow do something, then what better place is there for her to be located in at the time, than the place full of earth's guardians?"

Some of the Avengers nodded at that logic, while others looked uneasy at the thought of Miriam's presence. That didn't bother her, though. She was used to people looking at her like she was going to blow up their entire planet (though to be fair, she did often blow up entire planets for absolutely no reason other than amusement value).

Miriam looked around at all of the different faces. Which one of these people would it be easiest to get into the head of? Which one could she appeal to to get her freedom?

She decided on the one with the wings, Sam Wilson. He seemed like a bit of a simpleton, and there was no reason to believe that he would have particularly good mental defences. Being honest, he didn't even look like he had any physical defenses, let alone mental ones.

Miriam lowered her eyes, and tried to curl up into the smallest shape possible. She drew up her legs, and pressed her face to her knees. She made soft whimpering noises. Thor frowned at Miriam, then looked at the other Avengers. "Though I don't believe Miriam can cause much harm to us, do be wary. She has a way of getting into your head and turning your thoughts all over the place."

Miriam narrowed her eyes. She didn't move, though, so no one could see that she looked peeved. Miriam was annoyed. Was it really it really too much to ask to get back her power? If she ever did get it back, even just a piece of it, then Miriam would blow up this entire planet, as thanks for pissing her off.

The Captain sighed. "Thank you, Thor." He looked over at Miriam. "We're going to need to discuss this. Do you mind waiting out in the hallway with Thor?"

Miriam didn't respond. Thor gently took her arm, and tugged her to her feet. It was okay to send Thor out to babysit, since he had already made it clear that he was on board with the idea of Miriam staying with the Avengers, since it had been his idea in the first place.

Thor pulled Miriam out into the hallway, and closed the door to the meeting room so the rest of the Avengers could discuss the matter without being overheard. Miriam leaned against the wall, arms crossed over her chest. "So what's the point of all this? You're going to keep me prisoner here even though I'm currently weaker than any of you? And in the same place as one of my stones? How do you know that I won't just grab it and run?"

Thor snorted. "I have serious doubts that you would be able to defeat Vision in a fight. You would not be able to get the stone away from him."

Miriam shrugged. "I think you'd be surprised by the motivation that comes with wanting something really, really badly. But it doesn't really matter. It's not like I plan on sticking around this place for very long." She scowled. "And I shouldn't have to. I've done nothing to wrong you or the Avengers."

"It does not matter if you've done nothing against us personally. Odin believes that you could be a threat, and more importantly, he told me to watch over you. So that means that I'm going to watch over you, or at least ensure that there are capable people watching you."

Miriam winced, and wrapped one arm around her middle. "Being mortal like this sucks. I guess those Asgardians knew what they were talking about when they said that they had found a punishment that was befitting all of my crimes. Though they probably would have been better off just killing me while they had me restrained, rather than just locking me up, right under their feet, no less." She sighed. "If you would just help me get all of the stones back, then I promise that I'll leave this place alone. I'm not going to lie and say I've changed my ways, but I can move all of my destruction to the other side of the universe, where I won't be bothering anybody you care about."

Thor shook his head. "I'm sorry, but no matter what the Avengers decide as your fate, you will have to stay on Midgard. Odin said that you are to stay here and live out the rest of your days, no matter how many there are left."

Miriam scowled. "If I had my powers right now I would disintegrate you where you stand. You and all your dumb little friends!"

The door to the meeting room swung open, and Sam stepped out. He cleared his throat to let the alien know that he was there. She turned with a look of immense irritation on her face. He nodded to the doorway. "You can come back in now, so the Captain can explain the verdict to you."

She stomped back into the room, and stood there angrily instead of taking a seat. "So you've decided what you're going to do with me? Even though you have absolutely no right to do such a thing?"

The Captain sighed. "Staying here is your best option."

"That implies that I have other options."

Wanda grinned. "Well, technically speaking, you do. I could always destroy you right now, and save us all a whole bunch of trouble."

Miriam looked unimpressed. "Right. You've seen the things that my kind is capable of, but you're willing to risk their wrath just to kill someone who can't even defend herself? How heroic."

Vision stood up. "What exactly is your kind?"

Miriam glowered at that. Thinking of her kind only served as a reminder that they had all left her behind. Eventually, even the only person she had ever cared about had betrayed her. She shrugged, trying to look casual despite the hurt showing on her face. "We're known as Eternals. Or at least, that's what two of us call each other. There's really no name more fitting, considering how long we've been alive at this point." She shook her head. "Why do you care?"

Vision sighed. "I have never heard of such a species before. Wanda has described what she could of the things she saw in your mind, and they are confusing, to say the least. We are simply trying to understand who you are."

Miriam spoke bitterly. "Well, I guess all you really need to know is that all of my terrible murderess personality aspects stem from a deep-rooted abandonment issue, caused by every other person in my entire freaking species leaving me. Anything else you wanted to know?"

Vision shook his head almost meekly. "No, that would be all."


	9. Chapter 9

Miriam paced back and forth in the small room she had been assigned. It had a bed and a little dresser, and that was it. There wasn't even a window for her to climb out of. And whenever she tried to leave, she would bump into the two agents that were stationed just outside her door. It was absolutely maddening.

Miriam had already been held a prisoner for the past ten thousand years, and then, even though she had been freed, she was still a prisoner. It wasn't fair at all. How could these idiots expect her to be 'reformed', or whatever, if they wouldn't even give her a hint of freedom? They might as well have just put her in jail, since at least then they wouldn't have to bother looking at her.

There was a soft knock at the door, but Miriam ignored it, and decided to continue her pacing instead. She was afforded very few rights in this place, so she wasn't going to give up the right to refuse to see these idiots.

But Miriam's wishes were apparently no longer important, because the door opened slowly. Thor was the one standing in the doorway, Miriam knew that much without even looking. It was because she could literally feel the power eminating from Mjolnor.

Thor cleared his throat, but Miriam stopped pacing while facing the wall so she wouldn't have to look at him. "I have important business to attend to on Asgard, and as such, I will be gone for several weeks."

Miriam shrugged. "Good riddance."

Thor frowned. "You aren't a dumb creature. Surely even you can see that beyond me, you do not have many allies in this place. The others are far more wary of you than I am. I just thought I'd tell you to be careful." Miriam didn't even dignify that with a response. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Thor sighed. "Well, I shall see you when I return. Try to stay safe." The door closed, and Miriam pressed her eyes shut.

How could Thor stand there and act so hurt when he was the one who had voted for her to be locked up here? Did he honestly expect her to be grateful for that? After a few minutes, Miriam walked over to the dresser, and climbed up on top by pulling out all of the drawers and using them as stairs. She pulled her knees up to her chest, and sighed as she leaned back against the wall. She was scared that if she fell asleep lying down, she wouldn't wake up for another ten thousand years, as irrational as that was. Miriam closed her eyes, and let herself fall asleep, curled up uncomfortably on the dresser.

Miriam woke up with a sharp gasp some time later. She couldn't be sure how much time, though, because there were no windows to let her know what time of day it was. She had been woken up by the feeling of strong power coming closer. From the feel of it, it had to be pretty big.

Miriam gulped. As much as she insisted that she could take care of herself, she knew that she was vulnerable and weak like this. She wouldn't be able to defend herself, and no one would be stupid enough to try and protect the person they thought was so dangerous.

She scrambled down off of the dresser, and hurried over to the door. She tugged on the handle, but it was locked. The agents on duty must have locked it before hurrying off to deal with the problem. Great.

Miriam glanced around the room, trying to find a weapon to defend herself with. There wasn't really much to work with in the barren room. She yanked out one of the dresser drawers all the way, and carried it up to the top of the dresser with her. She stood up, and dropped the drawer from as high up as possible, watching with satisfaction as it splintered.

She jumped down and picked up one of the larger splinters, looking it over carefully. That should be effective enough as a weapon against anything normal. Of course, that was going under the assumption that it was just a weak Midgardian breaking in, when there were really a million different things that could be trying to attack. And there were a million different motives behind it, too. It could be someone with a personal vendeta against the Avengers, or it could be some idiot who had plans of world domination, and just weren't smart enough to start on the side of the planet where there were no Avengers.

There were loud shouts coming from the hallway, and Miriam tensed up. She went over and stood right next to the door, clutching her splinter tightly, even though the ragged edges dug into her palms painfully.

The door suddenly swung open, and Miriam didn't bother to check who was there. She swung the piece of wood forward with a loud 'crack!' and then ducked through the doorway, and ran for all she was worth. She winced, and wrapped one arm around her sore ribs.

There was a shout, but Miriam couldn't hear what was being said, and she didn't care to stick around long enough to find out. As she ran, there was suddenly the feeling of something calling out to her, and she knew instinctively that it was one of her stones. It had a similar feeling to the Tesseract and Vision's head, but it was distinctly different as well.

Miriam wanted to keep running, but she also didn't want to miss out on a chance to grab back one of her stones, so she veered to the left, and ran harder. She didn't even need to think about it, she could just close her eyes and let instinct guide her to a tiny little thing that held some of her power.

She wasn't really sure how exactly she was going to get the stone out of Vision's head, but if it really came down to it, she could always just brain him with her handy new stick. Of course, he could probably easily defend himself against an attack like that, but Miriam preferred to not worry about that part quite so much.

Miriam took a sharp turn around the corner, and she could feel the stone, so close to her, yet still out of her grasp. But that was of little importance. She would have it back soon, and then she would be that much closer to regaining all of her power. She was still running, rather quickly for a person who was still healing, but she just ignored the pain, and slid around the next corner.

She slid down the smooth hall floor, and came to a stop right behind the Avengers, who were all currently battling for their lives. They were fighting what looked like giant mechanical bees.

Not too terrifying, but getting stung by one of those suckers would probably hurt quite a bit. Miriam didn't want to fight any giant bees. In fact, she wanted to fight the Avengers, who the bees seemed to be slowly losing too. These guys were good, so no wonder they had been elected to watch over the entire planet.

Miriam took a few steps back, and closed her eyes as she thought about an old friend. Gaea, she'd been called. A long time ago, back before Miriam had gone around ravaging everything she came across, she'd met the lovely woman. Gaea had taken Miriam in for a while, and had taught her many neat things. One of those things was how to handle an angry swarm of bees.

Miriam kept her eyes closed, and began softly humming. After a few wrong notes, her lips seemed to remember the tune better than her brain, and the soft song flowed out of her like it was as natural as breathing. She didn't get too loud, knowing that the bees would be able to sense the vibrations in the air without actually being able to hear what she was singing.

Of course, this was a tactic that she had been taught to use on real bees, and she had never encountered these strange metal bees before, so she had never had the opportunity to see if it would work on them.

At first, it didn't seem to, but after a few minutes of soft humming, she could feel the bees halting in their battle. Some began flying right past the Avengers, while their brethren kept up the fight.

After the heroes had defeated the bees in front of them, they turned around to see their prisoner, with the entire rest of the swarm hovering around her. She smiled at them, then turned to the Avengers with a cold gaze. "Hand over my stone, and I won't order my friends here to go and kill every single person in this building who isn't an Avenger."

The Captain frowned. "You're the one who sent them here? How?"

Miriam shook her head. "No, I'm not the type of person to take credit for other

people's work. Someone else sent these bees in here. I just spotted a chance, and I took it. So? Are you going to hand over the stone, or are you going to watch everyone else in here die?"

Black Widow stepped forward. "Are you really that scared to go on living without all of your power?"

Miriam scoffed. "Is it really considered being scared to want back what's rightfully

mine? I can't change what I was born as anymore than any of you can. And maybe a lot of people have gotten hurt because of me. Directly because of me. But so what? Someone on this planet could build an army of mechanical bees to send around killing people, and they've got no power at all. My power is not evil or bad. That douche over there is proof of that," she nodded towards Vision. "But I don't need to justify this at all. That power is mine. You'll return it to me, or you will lose everyone."

The Falcon frowned. "Why are you so insistent on setting them onto everyone but us?"

Miriam shrugged. "I'd like to think that it would hurt you more to know that it's

your fault that all these people are dying around you. And then you can walk around and look at every single body once these bees have done their job. So? Are you going to give me the stone?"

Vision stepped forward. "No."


	10. Chapter 10

**wolftattoo****\- Don't worry, the others do finally see sense when it comes down to the fact that those stones belong to Miriam**

**guest elvis****\- I also believe that it would be fascinating to have Tony Stark meet Miriam. I do think that it'll happen eventually, I'm just not sure when, since Tony's not really part of the new Avengers**. **But I will try to introduce him before civil war**

**lostfeather1****\- yes, the story doesn't stay entirely against Miriam forever, in fact changes will happen in this chapter. At this point, so many people have commented on Miriam's behalf (much to my surprise), that even Miriam noticed how much support she's been getting. She should probably meet Deadpool eventually so they can both discuss the fact that they're in a fictional story.**

**Anyways, thanks for all of the reviews guys! from now on, I'm going to try and address all reviews at the beginning of the next chapter if that's okay**

Miriam rolled her eyes. "This is literally the dumbest thing ever. Those stones rightfully belong to me, and you have absolutely no power to keep them, let alone understand how much power they really hold. So you'd really just be doing yourself a favor-" Miriam was suddenly flying forward with an undignified squack.

She landed in a heap on the floor, and looked up, a bit dazed. There was the sound of metal parts hitting the ground, since the bees couldn't defend themselves if Miriam hadn't first told them to.

Miriam leaned her head back against the wall. "I hate everything! I hope that all of you go to hell!" She tried to scramble to her feet, but found that her shirt was pinned to the wall via a little yellow disk. She looked up at glared at Falcon. Falcon, despite himself, couldn't help gulping at that murderous look in the girl's eyes.

Wanda glanced back and forth between Miriam and the now out of order metal bees. "So what are we supposed to do? There's someone out there who was somehow able to get all of these things in here, and we've already got someone in here who's intent on destroying us."

Steve frowned. "How did you get away from James? He was supposed to escort you to somewhere safer?"

Miriam frowned, and answered in a mumble. "I have no idea what the hell you crazy people are all talking about." Then she began to talk at a rapid-fire pace in some language that the Avengers had never heard before.

There was the sound of angry grumbling getting louder as the person grumbling got closer to the rest of the Avengers. Finally, Rhodey stopped in front of them, looking half pissed off and half embarrassed.

When he saw that Miriam was currently unable to move, he sighed with relief.

"Oh, good, you caught her. I was afraid that she was going to just get away after she broke out."

Steve raised one eyebrow. "Yeah, how did that happen, anyways?"

Rhodey frowned. "As soon as I opened the door, she hit me in the head with a

big piece of wood. Apparently she broke apart the dresser in there to use as weapons." He looked at Miriam with some confusion. "But she could have made it out if the rest of you were preoccupied with the bees. Why would she not just run for it?"

Vision nodded. "I believe the answer to that is in my head."

Miriam scowled. "Well it is mine. And just so you know, everybody thinks that I should get my stones back."

Natasha tilted her head. "What do you mean by 'everyone'? According to Thor,

he took you straight here as soon as you got to Earth."

Miriam looked up like she was praying for patience to not tear these fools apart. And even though she absolutely could not tear these fools apart, the vicious look she held on her face still sent shivers down the spines of the Avengers. "Everyone. Like all the people who- oh never mind. You're all too stupid to possibly comprehend anything that requires brain cells to think about."

Sam walked over to Miriam, yanked his disc out of the wall, and scooped up the alien like she weighed nothing. "That's it. You're going back to your room now."

Miriam struggled in his arms, and she provided about as much threat as a

squirming kitten. Then, she let herself go entirely limp. The sudden change in weight distribution effectively threw Sam off balance, and Miriam jumped out of his arms. She ran over to vision and reached up, having to stretch to actually reach the stone, and she brushed her fingers lightly over the rock before stepping back.

Vision frowned as he felt a splitting headache. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt before. He could feel the power of the stone suddenly at war with Miriam's power, despite having lived together in harmony for ten thousand years. Vision sank down to his knees as various images flooded his mind. But there was one thought that stood out against all of the rest:

Miriam's power wanted to get out of that tiny containment, and back into Miriam's

body. And if Vision continued trying to keep holding onto both power sources, they would soon tear each other apart, and him in the process. He gasped up at Miriam. "What did you do?"

Miriam grinned, looking satisfied with herself. "I simply gave a little reminder that you are trying to balance an awful lot of power. I've seen greater beings fall at the hands of less power than this, so I think that we all know what's going to happen here. Either you're going to hand over the stone, which I will proceed to take my own power from, and leave the stone's power for you, or you will be ripped to shreds, and all of that power will be returned to me. Oh, and then your whole planet will probably blow up as a side effect of that. It's up to you."

Vision pressed his hands to his head, like that would somehow help keep in all of

that power. He began to glow faintly, and the other Avengers were looking back and forth between Vision and Miriam with alternating concern and anger.

Steve stepped forward, and glared at Miriam, who was just standing there with an expression that showed a mix of anger and amusement. "That's enough! Cease whatever attack you're using against Vision!"

Miriam leaned back until her back was pressed up against the wall, and she crossed her arms over her chest. She peered up at Steve like she was daring him to take action. Finally, she gave a casual shrug. "It's not like I can do anything at this point. I didn't do anything other than give that rock a little reminder of just whose power it contains. All I can do is take back what's rightfully mine, or stand here and get caught up in the explosion with the rest of you."

What she didn't say was how hard she was fighting to not start shaking like crazy. How absolutely terrified she was of the idea that there could be a moment where she'd no longer be alive. Being asleep was a horrible inconvenience, but being dead was likely to be a bit more frightening. But being dead had to be infinitely more satisfying than having to live as such a weakling. She was going to die someday no matter what if she stayed like this, so she might as well go down with a smirk on her face and giving off the impression that she knew what she was doing.

Vision looked up at Steve. "Captain, it is your choice. I don't believe I have enough information to properly assess the situation, and you are the leader of the people in charge of protecting the world. So I'm sorry, but I'm putting the choice into your hands."

Steve looked at Miriam, and his eyes widened when he realized the truth. It took the close observation that a super soldier was able to do, so Steve was able to notice. He saw the look of terror in Miriam's eyes, and he saw the way that she was trembling all over, even if she was barely moving. But mostly he saw the acceptance in her eyes. He recognized that look. He'd seen it in the eyes of all those prisoners of war he'd rescued in the past. The look of someone who had accepted their fate, and knew that it would be pointless to fight it.

He sighed and looked Miriam straight in the eyes. "You said that you can take the power that is yours, and then return the rest to Vision, right?"

The look of complete surprise on Miriam's face was priceless. She gaped at the Captain for a moment, looking like she was trying to collect herself. She had been so resigned to her fate, it hadn't occurred to her for even a moment that there was going to be someone agreeing with her.

Finally, her senses returned, and Miriam found it in herself to nod slowly. "Yes." She cleared her throat. "Yes, I did say that. It's entirely true. I have so much power on my own, I really have no need for whatever random crap came with those things." She scoffed. "To think that those stupid Asgardians didn't think me worthy anything more than a few pre-owned rocks." She looked at Steve, returning his serious gaze. "Are you really giving me permission to reach into your friend's head and pull out something essential to his continued ability to live?"

Wanda glanced over at Steve doubtfully. "You're not really trusting her to keep her word, are you? She doesn't care about any of us. The moment she's got that power in her hands, she'll destroy us all, or at the very least, leave right away."

Steve looked at Vision. "Can you accept my decision?"

Vision nodded. "Of course. I trust your judgement. Besides, I don't think that she would have any easier of a time handling both sets of powers than I do. Now that they've been upset, they just don't mix anymore." He closed his eyes for a moment as another wave of pain washed over him. "Just do it quickly, I suppose."

Miriam walked over to where Vision was, and she knelt down in front of him. Rhodey and Sam moved so they were standing on either side of the girl, ready to move the moment something seemed to be going wrong.

Miriam glanced up at Natasha. "Knife please." At the assassin's frown, Miriam rolled her eyes. "It's not like I can just pluck it out when I'm as weak as I am right now." She held up her hand impatiently, and Natasha slammed the knife down onto the waiting palm a little harder than necessary.

Miriam took a deep breath before leaning forward. "Not going to lie, most people don't find the sensation of a knife in their skull especially pleasant."

Vision shrugged. "Then perhaps now is a moment to celebrate the fact that I'm certainly not like most people."

Miriam chuckled. "You've got that right." Then she raised the knife, and pressed the tip in between Vision's head and the stone. She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them to focus on the task in front of her. "Well, here goes nothing." And she pushed her wrist forward.


	11. Chapter 11

**Sameen Hadiya- Thank you for reading, and I'm glad that you're enjoying the story so far**

**lostfeather1- Your wish has been granted. Miriam's not going to automatically be the all powerful, immortal, invincible being that she was ten thousand years ago, but this is a start**

The hallway was full of a thick tension as the blade of the knife slipped past the yellow stone, and it felt like everyone was collectively holding their breath. They probably were, because no one wanted to ever see a valued team member so vulnerable. And Miriam was so unpredictable, it was impossible to know whether or not she was really going to keep her word.

But what most of the team failed to notice was that Miriam looked just as on edge as the rest of them. If she failed, she could always just grab the stone and run, leaving the pieces to fall where they may. There was nothing left for her to lose, so the fact that she had little droplets of sweat visible on her face was the proof Steve needed that despite the way she talked, she wasn't really eager to just go and kill them all off, at least not yet.

There was the sound of two hard surfaces clacking together, and everyone seemed to simultaneously twitch forward, seeming ready to wrench the knife right out of Miriam's hands. But Vision didn't seem any more distressed than he had a minute ago, so the Avengers just continued to stand there, waiting for something to happen.

Miriam knew exactly where to add pressure, though it did involve the tip of the blade digging into Vision's head a bit more than anyone was comfortable with. Vision pressed his lips together, and just continued to stare at Miriam, well aware of the fact that it was only serving to make her increasingly uncomfortable.

Finally, Miriam flicked her wrist, then yanked back with as much force as possible. It would be best to get this all over quickly, rather than having the high strung superheroes breathing over her shoulders for a long time. She gave Vision an apologetic glance, and he just gave her an accepting nod.

With that final piece of permission, Miriam popped the stone out of its resting place, and as soon as the rock was no longer touching him, Vision slumped over, and it was really hard to tell whether he was dead or asleep. Miriam looked up at the concerned and angry heroes with a shrug. "He'll be fine as soon as he gets this back. Just give me a moment, okay?"

She gripped the stone tightly, and squeezed her eyes shut. She brought the rock up to her lips, and pressed what looked like a gentle kiss against it. Natasha raised one eyebrow, but no one else made any move to stop Miriam from doing whatever she had in mind to do.

Miriam breathed in deeply, inhaling through her mouth, then she moved the stone down and held it over her chest. Steve motioned for everyone to step back when a strange yellow glow seemed to surround Miriam, though it was a useless gesture because the others were either already backing away, or edging closer to try and figure out what was actually going on.

Miriam blinked once, then opened her eyes fully, and they were the same color as the rock she was still holding. Though as they watched, the stone looked like it was fading a bit, and the yellow color just kept getting paler and paler until it was a smooth white.

Miriam stood up, still clutching the stone to her chest, over her heart if alien anatomy was anything like human anatomy. The glow around her began shaking like crazy, and now even the more curious heroes were smart enough to take several steps back, not wanting to be hit by any sort of explosion of power.

Miriam's head slowly turned, taking in all of the people around her, and letting them take in the sight of her eyes, which were now completely red, with not even her pupils visible. It was enough to creep out even those who had seen many weird things so far in their careers.

When they looked down, they could see where the girl's feet weren't even touching the floor anymore, and she was instead floating several inches above the tiles. It looked like she had already sucked all of the power out of the little rock, though when she looked down at the white stone, there was longing on her face.

Steve cleared his throat, and held his shield carefully when the yellow eyes suddenly focused on him. He spoke in his best commanding voice. "You promised. You'd only take what's yours, and leave the rest for Vision."

Miriam pulled back one side of her mouth, leaving an expression that was a cross between an amused smirk and what was almost a genuine smile. She slowly sank back down, until her feet were once again resting on the floor, and then walked over to where Vision was sprawled out on the ground.

She knelt next to him, and blocked whatever she was doing from the view of the Avengers. Then there was a blinding white light that the humans had to cover their eyes and look away from, and when they opened their eyes, they felt relief. Vision gracefully got to his feet, and offered his hand down to Miriam, who was still kneeling on the floor.

She hesitated, then ignored the gesture, and got to her feet on her own. Steve looked at the stone in Vision's head with some confusion, as it was a very pale pink, rather than just the solid white it had been a minute ago. Miriam crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I've done as you asked, and I made sure to leave your friend alive. He shouldn't feel any different."

Vision blinked a few times, then nodded. "It's true, I don't feel any different than I did before."

Miriam nodded smugly. "Of course you don't, because I'm actually good at what I do. Fair warning though, I did leave a drop, just a little drop, of my own power in that stupid rock. Let's call it my insurance policy. You've already seen what can happen when the two powers realize that they don't belong together, and I'm fairly certain that you don't want a repeat demonstration of that."

Steve crossed his arms over his chest. "And what is it that you want that'll stop you from enacting your 'insurance policy'?"

Miriam smiled politely. "Obviously I want to get out of here. No one wants to get locked up in a little box for any amount of time, let alone for longer than ten thousand years. So you just open the front doors, and I'll be on my way."

Natasha raised one eyebrow curiously. "You have your power back now, so shouldn't you just be able to walk right through the doors, or something?"

Miriam pouted immediately. "Ugh, fine. There's no point in hiding it, since you'd notice soon enough on your own, but I can't use my powers. At least not yet. Not until I get it all back. I didn't know that this was going to happen, but apparently those idiot Asgardians made it an all or nothing sort of deal. I have my power back, I can feel it in me, but it's totally useless right now." Her face brightened up a bit. "Well, not totally useless. There's still a few tricks that I now have back up my sleeve. It just happens that smashing through doors is not one of them. This is obviously the stone with the mind related powers in it." She grinned. "You may never know whether or not I've decided to use my power on you." She wiggled her fingers.

Rhodey rolled his eyes. "You can't scare us by pretending that you have some kind of voodoo in it. Just admit it, you're still powerless."

Miriam narrowed her eyes, and gave the grown man a look that made him feel a bit scared. She took a few steps forward, so it seemed like she was going to stand right in front of him, but she turned last minute, and found herself facing Wanda. She smiled, reached forward, and grabbed Wanda's hands, raising them to place them on the sides of her own head.

Wanda tilted her head. "What are you doing?"

Miriam smiled, and it was a very shark-like smile. "I want you to try reading my mind again. And the operative word here is definitely 'try'. I just want you and your friends to realize that I'm not a useless little disposable being anymore."

Wanda rolled her eyes at that, but she did close her eyes and breath out slowly as she concentrated on what was going on in the head of the much older girl. But instead of delving into another memory, or even a thought of some kind, Wanda found herself crashing right into a giant steel wall.

She felt around for a bit, but found that it was a smooth, flawless surface, and there was no way to penetrate it. She tried in vain anyways, and found herself slamming into the wall over and over, and she just knew that that was going to hurt soon. She slowly stepped back, and turned around, where she saw Miriam standing, her arms crossed over her chest. She had that yellow glow around her, and she tilted her head. Her expression was clearly asking if Wanda conceded, and Wanda had no choice but to nod.

Wanda opened her eyes and took a few steps back, taking in the girl in front of her. Though it was a little hard to think over that headache that was now roaring through her head. Miriam stayed standing where she was, showing that she really was an unmoveable object now.

Wanda looked up at Rhodey, a bit helplessly. "She speaks the truth. Her mind is completely fortified now. Where before I could just waltz right in and look and anything I wanted to, now I find that entry is impossible. And the power that she has is indeed in there." She shrugged. "Maybe it would be best for us to just let her go-?"

Steve shook his head. "No way. Thor trusted us to watch her and that's because Odin trusted us to be able to contain her. We're just going to have to deal with her new strengths." He looked at Miriam carefully. "And as long as you don't go around attacking people or causing destruction, you are free to roam anywhere you want on the grounds of this place."

Miriam's eyes darkened. "Yeah, because that sounds like a fair deal. Honestly, what the hell is wrong with you people?"

Steve didn't look ready to budge. "I think that it's what's best for everyone. Besides, Thor would be disappointed if he came back and found that you'd left without saying goodbye."

Miriam's eyes flared at that, but she didn't bother responding. She just turned around and stormed back to her room, ready to lie in bed and sulk for a while. She'd seen enough television programs by now to know that that's what they would expect of someone who looked the way she did, since unfortunately, in the eyes of the midgardians, she was still just a child. A child with immense and uncontrollable power, but a child all the same.


	12. Chapter 12

**Ryaaaaann- the reason she didn't do the same thing to the Tesseract is because the space stone is in a cube, and Miriam needs direct access to the infinity stones to get her powers back from them. **

There was a shrill beeping noise that seemed to be coming right out of the very walls, and Miriam slowly sat up. She tilted her head to the side to try and listen more closely so she could figure out what the hell was going on. The noise didn't stop, and when Miriam finally decided to step out into the hallway, she saw little red flashing lights.

Miriam frowned. She was thoroughly confused. Was this another Midgardian activity that was meant to be fun? Because if so, then Miriam wanted nothing to do with it. She'd had enough 'fun' getting grounded a few days ago because apparently she 'wasn't allowed to borrow Hawkeye's bow and use it to shoot at birds'. It was completely 'irresponsible' and 'inhumane'. It was ridiculous that these idiots expected that she could be humane when she wasn't even human. And if Hawkeye was retired, then why had he been stupid enough to leave behind his bow if it wasn't meant to be used?

Before Miriam turned around and went back into her room, she paused because she heard the sound of urgent footsteps running down the hallway, quickly getting closer. She saw Rhodey make a sharp turn around the corner, and he was going to pass right by Miriam in a moment. "Hey! What's going on?"

Rhodey slowed to a fast walk. "Haven't you ever thought about the fact that it's kind of our job to go out and fight bad guys and save people? Well we need someway to know when there's things to do, don't we?"

Miriam shrugged. "You guys have very strange ways of going about things. You do know that, right?"

Rhodey shrugged. "I really don't have time to be standing around. There's lives hanging in the balance here." He quickly strode away, resuming his speedy pace. Miriam rolled her eyes. Obviously the man was still sore about the fact she'd taken him out so easily, even though she'd been absolutely powerless at the time, and he was supposed to be one of Midgard's mightiest superheroes. That had to have bruised his ego even more than it bruised his head.

As Miriam continued to listen to the blaring alarm and flashing lights, an idea occurred to her. She'd always enjoyed killing random annoying things in the past. It was a good way to release tension and keep her in shape. So maybe she should help the Avengers right now. She could be useful, and they wouldn't even be able to get mad, because she'd be helping them protect their precious Midgard by punching away all of her frustrations, so it would really be a win-win situation.

Miriam hurried down the hall in the same direction that Rhodey had gone, and there was an immense sense of satisfaction in her at the thought of actually being able to do something. This facility had gotten really boring really quickly, and Miriam didn't understand how the other Avengers who stayed here full time could live with themselves. But it wasn't her responsibility to make sure that these people were entertained. In fact, if it were up to Miriam, she would have no responsibilities at all.

But right now Miriam had a responsibility to herself; she had the responsibility to keep herself from bashing her head against the wall out of boredom, and this really did seem to be the next best option at the moment.

Miriam stepped into the hanger, and looked at the big ship that was parked there. She narrowed her eyes as she tried to figure out whether it was a spaceship of some sort, or if these were regularly distributed and Thor had just borrowed a really old version of a car. Either way, Miriam was slightly uncomfortable with the idea of getting on, but she knew that she would have to if she wanted to go kick ass with the other superheroes.

As she started to walk towards the ship, a Shield agent crossed his arms over his chest, and blocked the way. "Where do you think you're going?"

Miriam rolled her eyes. "I do not have the time or patience for this," she grumbled under her breath. Then she looked up and connected her eyes with the agent's. She stared at him. "I'm rather obviously getting onto that spaceship- vehicle thing. And I have full authorization to do so."

The agent blinked a few times, and it looked like he was fighting with himself over the matter. Miriam was annoyed that she wasn't back to her full capacity of power. If she was, this guy would be falling to his knees, begging to do anything Miriam asked of him.

Finally, the agent gave Miriam a terse nod. "Alright, you can go. But don't go causing any trouble, because then everybody will be pissed off."

Miriam chuckled, and held her hands up placatingly. "Don't worry, I wasn't planning on causing any trouble for you guys. I promise, the bad guys are the only ones who are going to be in trouble."

The agent sighed, and Miriam strode past him. She slipped aboard the ship and looked out the windows. She had purposefully stuffed herself in a spot that would allow her to see outside. She watched as the other Avengers boarded the ship, and let out a silent sigh of relief at the fact that she had enough of her power to block out that stupid redhead, so Wanda wouldn't be able to suddenly tell everyone else that they had a castaway. Not that Miriam would consider herself a castaway, but that was hardly the point.

A few minutes later, Miriam felt the plane jolt forward, and then she watched as the ground got further and further away. Miriam was glad that there was no one looking at her right now, because they'd probably be able to see how unnerved she was by the current mode of transportation, even if they didn't read her mind.

Miriam closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall, making sure that she was still curled up into the smallest ball possible, which was actually quite small. She decided that it would be good to take a quick nap before they got to wherever they were going, so that she would have full strength when it came time to fight.

Then Miriam realized that she would be completely screwed if she didn't have a weapon to fight with. It had always been a lot easier, since she could just explode an entire planet with one snap of her fingers, but for now, she would have to find some way to fight.

She cautiously peered out from behind the crates that she was hiding next to, and saw that the small cargo room was closed off, and she was alone inside. Maybe one of these boxes would have something useful in it. Miriam began opening the crates and rifling through the contents, but there weren't any weapons as far as she could tell. Just weird metal tubes that were bent in half. She couldn't even begin to imagine what anyone would do with that.

After several more crates, Miriam finally found something useful. There were a ton of little discs with razor sharp edges, like the ones that Falcon tossed around. They were probably his spares. They would have to do for now, since there didn't seem to be anything else that would work very well when it came to hurting people.

Miriam carefully attached the row of discs to her arm, then made sure that her shirt sleeve was tugged down far enough to cover up her newly discovered weapon. It wasn't the best, but it would have to do for now.

Finally, after what felt like forever, Miriam could see the ground approaching the vehicle, and she ducked back into her hiding spot, just in case anyone decided to come in here before disembarking. If they did, they'd never be able to fit into the space, since they were all muscular adults.

Miriam watched out the window as the Avengers got off the ship, and began walking forward. There was a strange feeling in the pit of Miriam's stomach at the thought of how easy this had all been. But she shoved aside that feeling in favor of thinking of all the different ways she could dismember the enemies that the Avengers had come here to fight.

She waited a few more minutes so that she wouldn't be directly on the Avengers' tail, and then she left the ship as well. Miriam carefully followed the path that they'd clumsily left behind, though that wasn't really necessary, since she could quickly hear the familiar sounds of a battle.

Miriam grinned to herself. Now this was more like it. Finally, something that she'd be able to do without a bunch of grumpy superheroes telling her that it was wrong. They'd have to thank her for saving so many lives. But first, Miriam was going to fight, and she was going to tear several things limb from limb.


	13. Chapter 13

**Sameen Hadiya- I'm glad that you want more of this story. It's not my most popular one, so any little comment that people think to leave feels extra special**

Miriam stepped closer to the loud sounds of battle, and frowned when she saw that whatever the threat had been, it was already being led, in handcuffs, back the way that led towards the ship. Had the Avengers really been able to wrap things up so quickly? Miriam had to quash that pesky spot of disappointment she felt at not being able to help. Well, more likely she was just annoyed that she didn't get to destroy anything after all.

Then she turned and ran back towards the plane, not wanting to be left behind. Though she came to a sudden halt, and tilted her head. What reason could she possibly have for not wanting to be left behind? It would mean total freedom. A chance to figure out how the hell she was going to get her hands on the other stones. An opportunity to find her way off of this hunk of dirt. As long as she didn't go around creating large scale disasters, she didn't need to worry about the Avengers being able to track her down. And with at least a bit of her power restored, she'd be able to move around nearly undetected.

It had been so easy to get away, and Miriam felt glad that those idiots down in Shield weren't prepared to face her power. She turned and walked away, as quickly as possible, before diving behind some bushes to lie low for a bit. It wouldn't do for her to be seen from the Shield plane as they headed back to their headquarters.

Miriam took the chance to look around, to try and figure out what kind of place she was in at the moment. She didn't know much about Midgard, but she knew that it had many different types of regions, and all of them required completely different tactics in order to survive.

After about half an hour had passed, Miriam's knees felt sore, so she stood up and stretched. Then she turned to walk in the direction that would lead her as far away from the Shield plane as possible. If she had been paying more attention, she might have heard the soft snap of twigs that occasionally rang out from behind her.

Miriam walked until she saw several buildings, and she hurried forward into the little group of huts that was a rather pathetic excuse for a town. There didn't seem to be any people around, and she frowned as she decided that they must be scared of the dark if they all refused to come out at night.

Miriam's stomach growled loudly, and she cursed to herself. No matter how much time had passed, she would never be used to the fact that her body now required more maintenance than it ever had before, in order to do far less than she'd once been able to accomplish. The whole situation sucked, but at least getting her freedom was one good thing.

And when she did figure out a way to get off of this dump, the palace of Asgard would be her first destination, where she'd finally be able to wipe that smug look off of that idiot Odin's face. Who did he think he was, exiling her to a land where she had to carefully march through muddy ground? It was outrageous, and once Miriam was back to full power, she was absolutely not going to stand by and allow the terribly cruel acts to continue.

Miriam took a few cautious steps forward, then paused. She could feel that something wasn't right. She glanced around, and then stood still and closed her eyes, letting her hearing become her strongest sense, at least for the moment. It was too dark to see anything anyways, so she may as well just listen.

There it was- the soft whisper of someone brushing past a leafy bush while trying to remain silent. Miriam had been followed, and she was now sure that there were probably no people in any of those huts. This was a set up.

Miriam slowly turned, and hoped that she would have the element of surprise on

her side. Those idiot Avengers probably were stupid enough to believe she'd never catch on, since they're so confident in their abilities. Suddenly, without warning, Miriam flung herself off of the main path, and in between a few trees.

From there, she quickly scaled the rough bark, scowling every time a bit poked into her knees, or scraped up her hands. She pulled herself up onto a large branch that was pretty high up, and inched over far enough that she could no longer reach the tree trunk, but was still hidden by the tree's own leaves. Miriam grinned to herself, silently thanking the fact she'd been working out inside her room everyday, just in case a situation where escape was possible did ever arise.

Miriam looked down from where she was perched, and waited to see what would unfold. The Avengers waited a few minutes to move, perhaps thinking that they were mistaken in believing that the person they'd been tailing was suddenly gone. Then there was the soft rustling of leaves, and several sets of light footsteps as the 'superheroes' stepped out from their hiding spots warily, unsure of what to expect.

Miriam bit her lip to prevent that giggle that almost escaped at the look of confusion on their faces. She squinted a bit to try and see them better in the dark. Suddenly, the entire area was flooded with a bright light, and Miriam drew her legs up as much as she could, so that no part of her would be visible from the ground or the sky.

She watched as the Black Widow stood with her hands on her hips, glaring around murderously. She put away the communicator that she'd just used, presumably to summon all of the light. Now Miriam was stuck up in her tree, at least until those idiots went away, but as long as no one saw her, it would be fine.

Miriam scooched back so that her back was leaning against the trunk, since she wasn't stupid enough to believe that her arms would be able to hold her up indefinitely. She watched as the Avengers spread out, trying to scour the entire area, and soon, there were Shield agents searching along with the heroes.

Miriam scoffed at Wanda's pathetic attempt to search her out through her mind. Hadn't Miriam already proved herself to be superior when it came down to mind games? Either way, Miriam knew that she had no chance of leaving this tree, not while the whole fake little town was lit up like it was radioactive. When Miriam peered up, she could see that the source of all of the light was actually coming from the Shield plane, which was just hovering up in the sky.

She glance down and saw that Wanda was leaning back against a tree, her head in her hands. Miriam grinned gleefully to herself. When she first got back a bit of her powers, she'd been able to close off her mind well enough that no one could get in. But while she'd been working out to make her body tougher, she'd also been training her mind. At this point, trying to get in was not only pointless, but it would be pretty painful, too. Miriam had built up a mental fortress around herself, and there was no way that anyone was going to be able to get through it. Miriam leaned her head back, and let her entire body relax. She closed her eyes, and let out a soft sigh.

A little while later, Miriam was woken from that place between being awake and asleep by the sound of soft humming. She looked out, and saw that the Falcon was flying around, trying to get a look at everything from higher up. At that moment, Miriam couldn't help thinking that the Avengers team would be a lot more effective with more people who could fly.

Miriam was tempted to just shoot one of the little razor disks at the flying hero, but then that would immediately give away her position, and even if she was in good shape, there's no way she'd be able to outrun these crazy weirdos. Falcon flew away in the opposite direction, but before Miriam could go back to relaxing, she heard a louch screech, and she cringed back.

She peered down at the ground and saw that Steve was standing in the center of the fake village, holding what looked like a plastic cone to his face. It was times like this where Miriam almost regretted not taking the man up on his offer to teach her more about Midgard culture.

When Steve spoke, his voice came out much louder than it should have, considering his distance from Miriam's location. "Miriam! We know that you're still around here! Remember how we agreed that you would stay with us? You could have broken out any time using your mind tricks, but you didn't! That must mean you don't really want to go, right?" There was a long pause, and suddenly, the giant search lights were shut off, and Miriam had to blink a few times to get used to the sudden darkness after so much light. The Shield agents probably had some sort of night vision glasses, otherwise there would be the sound of a lot of people walking into trees. Steve cleared his throat. "There- you can leave if you want. We've made it easy enough for you."

Miriam shrugged. They were giving her an invitation to leave. It could be a trap, but then again, this whole thing seemed to be a trap from the beginning, and Miriam didn't really know what was going on anymore. She shimmied down the trunk of the tree, and landed on the ground with soft feet.

Then she turned away from where all of the commotion had been going on, and she began walking. She heard Steve's louder-than-possible talking again. "Miriam! What can you get out here, alone, that you can't get back there, with us?"

Miriam snorted quietly. They'd imprisoned her against her will, then denied her her rightful powers until she'd forced their hands. Maybe out here, alone, she'd finally be able to find some peace. She made sure to keep her steps light and low to the ground so they wouldn't be audible, and she walked further away.

Then that feminine accented voice spoke in that way too loud way. Miriam was going to have to look into getting one of those mouth cones for herself if it could make her voice boom so much. Wanda sighed. "You've been alone for a very long time. You probably can barely remember what it's like to not be alone. But you don't have to be that way anymore. Ar'iaal would not want you to have to be alone, would he?"

Miriam scowled. That wasn't how his name was pronounced, and she didn't appreciate having that name dropped on her like it wasn't some kind of major bomb. How the hell would she know what Ar'iaal wants? He was gone as far as Miriam was concerned. She walked a bit faster, though she still remained quiet.

Then she heard the next voice to boom out at her, though this one didn't need the help of that magic mouth cone. He must have just gotten back from his trip abroad. "My good friend, Miriam! Are you leaving because you did not enjoy my company?" Miriam rolled her eyes. "I bring you a note from my younger brother. I thought you might like to read it before you abscond."

Miriam frowned. Thor's little brother? That would be that Loki guy, with the blue skin and red eyes. The one who didn't like others to know about his blue skin and red eyes. Why would he be writing her a letter? But now that Miriam was curious, she accepted her fate as the fish who took the bait.

She let out a really loud groan, and hoped that the Avengers could feel the frustration that was wafting off of her. But then she turned around, and crossed her arms over her chest. She didn't continue towards the heroes, but now that she'd let out such a noisy sound, it wouldn't be hard for the others to find her.

She stood still, and a minute later, someone reached out and grabbed her arm. She didn't jump in surprise, because she'd been expecting it, though it was a bit stronger than she would have preferred. Thor was standing right next to Miriam, but his voice didn't get any softer. "Prepare your eyes to face the light again."

A moment later, the giant lights came back on, and Miriam blinked a few times as she got adjusted to the sudden change. Her eyes were going to be so wrecked in the morning from all of these shenanigans. When Miriam was able to see clearly again, she saw that she was surrounded by the superheroes, though they were spread just far enough apart that it wouldn't appear to be an immediately threatening situation.

Miriam looked up at Thor with one raised eyebrow until he got the message and let go of her arm. He took a step back, but he was still easily close enough to grab her again if he needed to. "So? Where's this letter?"

Miriam half expected Thor to not be able to produce anything, that maybe he'd lied, even though that wasn't usually Thor's style. But the blonde haired man reached into some pocket in his tunic, and pulled out a folded up sheet of paper. It was crinkly looking, different than the paper that could be found on Midgard. He held it out, and then stood still, waiting for Miriam to come to him.

She rolled her eyes at the giant man acting like she was some kind of wild animal. Then again, maybe being considered a wild animal wasn't entirely a bad thing. She stepped forward, and snatched the paper out of his hand, and he let go of it easily enough.

Miriam gave Thor an uncertain look, and he gave a tiny nod. He hadn't read it first because he trusted his brother. Trusting a family member? How… quaint. Miriam unfolded the paper carefully, holding it away from her so she could toss it away quickly if it turned out to be something other than advertised.

She moved her hands a bit closer, holding the paper steady. She frowned at the sprawling script, and the way she had to squint to make it all out properly. It was written in elvish. It was unlikely that Asgardians were teaching their children elvish, which means either Loki looked it up specifically for the note because he knew Miriam could read it, or he had already taught himself the beautiful language in his spare time.

She peered up at Thor, who had an eager look on his face, and she took a step back so he wouldn't be able to read it over her shoulder. _Miriam- Thor has told stories of how well you fit in on Midgard, which is to say, not at all. I must be completely out of my mind, but I trust you to not share this note with those Midgardians. I write to you now because I know what it is to not fit in. The day we met, you asked how I ended up son of Odin, despite the fact that I am a Jotun. It's rather simple, really. I was found as a baby, and Odin cast a spell on me to hide my true face from the world. But I was only ever taken to be used as a tool in a game of politics, which is why I do not get along with my father at all. I don't know why I'm telling you all of this. Anyways, that is certainly not the most interesting story I know, and for someone who's been alive for so long, it cannot be the most interesting story you've heard. You must have much wisdom, or at least knowledge, that you've accumulated over the years. So perhaps you could share a story with me sometime? -Loki Laufeyson_

Miriam looked up at Thor with one eyebrow raised. "Is this some kind of a joke or something? Why would your brother want to write anything to me? It just doesn't make any sense. I mean, we only met for like ten minutes."

Thor shrugged. "Perhaps he saw a kindred spirit in you. You do remind me of him a bit, in some ways."

Miriam frowned. "I remind you of a tall and creepy looking guy? Gee, thanks. That certainly makes my day."

Thor smiled. "Good, I'm glad to make your day. But if you expect me to bring him a response or anything, you'd have to be somewhere that you could easily hand me a letter." He looked pensive for a moment, then broke out in a big grin. "I know! Why don't you just stay with the Avengers?"

Miriam rolled her eyes, and crumpled up the letter. But it didn't pass Thor's attention when she slipped the crumpled paper into her pocket. She looked up at him challengingly. "Well? Are you going to tell all of these people to stand down or what? Because I don't want to be shot down just for moving, or anything like that."

Thor nodded happily, and gestured to the Avengers who were waiting around to do what they needed to if the situation were to escalate. They all looked a bit relieved that they wouldn't have to face off against this girl, when the full extent of her powers were still unknown. Though if it were up to Miriam, she'd have her full power restored as soon as possible. Too bad it wasn't up to Miriam."


	14. Chapter 14

Miriam leaned back in her chair, and crossed her arms over her chest. She wasn't sure why she had to sit around this stupid conference table, and it made her feel really dumb. It was a circle shaped table, so there was no one sitting on the end, and no one stuck in middle. Everyone was simply there, and that made Miriam uncomfortable. She couldn't think of very many times where everything didn't just come down to a giant power trip.

Miriam stared up at the Avengers, who always managed to make themselves look so large, despite the fact that most of them were seemingly average sized, for humans. Of course, if they'd ever met an eternal at the height of their power, then all of them would be running for their mothers, because they wouldn't stand a chance at survival.

It took another few minutes for everyone to actually be seated, and all of the random chatter to have settled down. Steve was the only one still standing, and he cleared his throat so everyone would know that it was time to begin the meeting. He looked around at everyone who was seated, and gave them all friendly little smiles.

"So, as you should probably know, we're gathered here right now to discuss the matter of our new guest," Miriam couldn't help rolling her eyes at that term. Guest made it sound like she had more of a choice in the matter than she really did. "Miriam." Everyone's eyes moved to look her over, and she just stared back at them blankly. Whatever they were hoping to get out of her, they were not going to get it. "There are many things we need to establish to make this arrangement as beneficial as possible for both sides. As we've all seen, Miriam has a lot of potential, and could be a useful member of our team-" Steve was immediately cut off by the sound of everyone talking over each other.

The eternal sighed, and though this wasn't her top choice of places to be, if she had to be here, it would be preferably to at least have some semblance of peace. She closed her eyes for a moment, and let thoughts of calmness and peace wash over the Avengers. Once they'd all settled down, Wanda peered over at Miriam with narrowed eyes. She didn't say anything, though. Probably because she had no way of knowing for sure that Miriam had just done that.

Steve looked at his team members scoldingly. "If you need to say something, then it should be done in an orderly fashion. Otherwise, we're not going to accomplish anything here."

Natasha stood up, and everyone looked at her. "The Avengers were originally put together to be protectors of Earth. Miriam has already made it perfectly care that she couldn't care less about Earth. No matter how else you want to look at it, she's simply not qualified to be a member of this team." She sat back down.

Vision stood up next, and everyone seemed pretty interested in hearing what he would have to say. "If Miriam has the power to help, even just a little bit, is it not her responsibility to do everything she can to help?"

Sam shook his head. "No one should be obligated to do anything just because they were born with certain talents that other people were not born with."

Vision nodded politely, "I see," and he sat back down.

Miriam stood up and slammed her hands down on the table, satisfied that she was able to make some of them flinch. "Do I not get a say in the matter? Has it occurred to you that I want nothing to do with your weak excuses for defending this planet? This planet is just a baby, and could easily be crushed by anyone who wanted to, whether there's a bunch of freaks in tight costumes lying around or not. I don't want to be on your stupid little team. I don't want to see you fighting so hard to defend this place, when most of you will be very dead soon enough."

Steve looked at Miriam curiously. "But what if you had to live out the entire rest of your life here on Earth? Wouldn't you want to make sure that it can at least last long enough for you to enjoy it?"

Miriam shook her head. "There's nothing enjoyable about a prison. I hope that some aliens decide that this hunk of rock is in their way, and they blast it aside without a second thought. There are some out there capable of that," the tone in the girl's voice became sad. "I used to be capable of that." She cleared her throat and shook her head. "Anyways, that's not the point. The point is that I want nothing to do with any of this. I'll stay here like an obedient little pet until a time where I see fit to leave. In the meantime, you can do whatever you want. I don't want to join you." She stormed out of the conference room.

Natasha shrugged. "Well, now that we've gotten that squared away, we can move on to other Avengers business."

Steve gave her a strange look. "There's really not much else on the books at the moment. I'm going to say that this meeting is dismissed." The Avengers slowly filed out of the room, though Steve remained where he was standing. He looked up once he thought the room was cleared, and saw that Thor was still there as well. "I said that the meeting is over. You can go and do whatever Thor things you're in the mood for."

Thor looked unsure. "Are you not going to go after our friend to see why she's upset? Perhaps if she learns that we are really her friends, she'll reconsider your offer to join the team? Because I can say that I would be honored to fight side by side with that little warrior."

Steve smiled. "Uh, yeah. You know, she seems to get along with you the best out of all of us. Why don't you go and see if she's alright? Maybe you can convince her to write a letter or something. I mean, having her in correspondence with Loki of all people is maybe not the best thing, but at least she'd have somebody to talk to. Even if she is a five hundred thousand year old alien, she's still got feelings that shouldn't be all bottled up."

Thor nodded. "And it is good for my brother as well. He feels very much imprisoned, similar to how Miriam feels. Perhaps they can find friends in each other." The Asgardian turned and left the meeting room, going off to find Miriam. She was in her room, hanging from the ceiling. Thor paused for a moment to figure out what she was doing.

Apparently she'd 'borrowed' a soldering iron to melt down one of the support bars on her bed enough to pull it out, and then she'd melded it to the ceiling. She currently had her feet curled around the bar, and her arms crossed over her chest. She raised herself up and down, letting out a strained groan each time she went up.

Thor grinned. "Impressive display, my friend."

Miriam peered up at Thor, who currently looked upside down from her perspective. "What do you want?" She went up again.

"I simply came to inquire about your well-being. Should you be doing all this movement when your injuries are still so visible? You shouldn't push yourself too hard because you feel that you've got a point to prove. We believe you when you say that you are strong." Miriam went up and down again, without saying anything in response. "Also, if you don't wish to discuss your healthy, despite the fact that you probably should, I came to see if you were going to send a reply to my brother's letter. It seemed as though he was expecting one. And I thought that you were interested in responding. Is that not why you chose to return to this place?"

Miriam managed to shrug while upside down. "I don't care that much. If I think of something to write back, then I will. If I can't, then I won't. It doesn't really make a difference to me either way. And as for this exercise stuff? I know that you guys believe I'm mentally strong, but the strength of a human is microscopic compared to the strength of an eternal. I could push planets out of orbit if I wished, and now I can barely pick up a human being." She went up and down again a few more times.

"Well, if you keep up this training, I'm sure you'll find yourself much stronger in no time at all, even if it isn't close to your original strength. But that's not such a bad thing, is it? Before, you had strength that you never really needed. But now that you have need of it, you must work for it like everybody else." Thor leaned his hip against the doorframe, and it didn't look like he was planning on moving himself away anytime soon.

Miriam let out an annoyed sigh. "Are you seriously going to watch me work out? Dude, that's just plain old creepy." She let herself drop down to the floor after a few more reps, and grabbed the towel that was resting on her bed frame. The mattress was pushed up against one of the walls.

Miriam wiped off some of the excess sweat that was on her, and then walked over to the dresser, which had been replaced since she'd broken the old one. She pulled out some tape from the top drawer and wrapped it around her knuckles. Then she walked over to the mattress, and began punching it, constantly shifting her angle and speed. It made her whole fighting style very unpredictable. Thor felt that she could truly make a worthy opponent or ally, depending on what she chose to do now that she was stuck on Earth.

Thor cleared his throat. "I believe that if you tilted your fists down a little more on those wide swings, you'd find that you cause yourself less pain." Miriam snorted and didn't respond, but Thor noticed that she did take his advice. When it didn't seem like she was going to offer anything else, Thor suddenly smiled. "Would you care to spar down in the training room?"

That was the first thing Thor had said that had actually gotten Miriam to stop what she was doing. She looked at him in disbelief. "I thought that the training room was for Avengers only? And we've all made it pretty clear that I am not, and shall never be an Avenger."

Thor shrugged. "Normally it is. But that just means that we don't really invite the agents in for practice. But since you're so intent on training, and you've got nowhere else to do it besides your room, I don't think it should be a problem. And as long as I'm there to supervise you, I think that nobody should have too many complaints."

Miriam narrowed her eyes. "But you're forgetting about the fact that I am way weaker than you. You could beat me into the ground right now. You could probably break every bone in my body. And as someone who's never had a broken bone before, I'm really not looking forward to experiencing that."

Thor shrugged again. "If that's how you feel, then I think that I'll be fine. But if the only reason you're opting out is because of my strength then I can promise to go easy on you."

"You were the one who just said that I shouldn't be working out when I still look injured."

The Asgardian smiled. "So then you are afraid to spar with me and lose. That's alright. I understand."

Miriam frowned. "I am certainly not scared of an Asgardian, of all people. But what do I actually get out of fighting you that I couldn't get in here?"  
Thor glanced around the small room. "This is admittedly a pretty impressive setup you've got here. But none of these things move or fight back," a strange gleam got into Thor's eyes. "Also, I'm prepared to wager on this. If you win, then I'll stop bothering you."

Miriam put her hands on her hips. "And if you win?"

"I'd say that you have to think further on joining the Avengers, but I know that you won't agree to that, and even if you do, someone shouldn't be forced to become a hero. So how about if I win, then you have to write a letter in response to my brother? I know he'll be waiting around for a reply, even if he does deny it."

Miriam finally sighed, then nodded slowly. "Okay, fine. You're on." When Thor held out his hand to shake on it, she just gave him a funny look, and pushed past him out into the hallway. When he stepped away, she slammed her door shut, and even though it didn't lock, it at least provided the illusion of some privacy. Thor took the lead then, walking towards the training room.

When they went inside the giant room, they say that they had the place to themselves. Thor walked over to one of the large mats. He unhooked Mjolner from his belt, and placed it gently down on the floor next to the mat. Then he pulled off his cape, and shoes, and stood there, ready to go.

Miriam glanced down at herself. She was wearing leggings and a long shirt. She kicked off her own shoes, and faced off against the guy who was at least twice her size, probably more.

"You know, there's no such thing as a clean fight in the real world, right? Which means that there should be no such thing as a clean fight when we're sparring in your stupidly big gym."

Thor nodded agreeably. "If that's how you feel. Though I'm not sure how I would change my fighting style to a less 'clean' version."

Miriam rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's fine. Whatever. Now let's get started before I get bored and remember that my squishy bed is as good at fighting as you are."

Thor raised one eyebrow. "The 'squishy bed'?"

Miriam nodded seriously. "Yeah, that thing that was up against the wall."

Thor laughed. "Ha, someone who understands Midgard even less than I do. That was a mattress. It's only one part of the bed. The metal part that you broke was the bedframe. It's not that complicated-" before Thor could go on, he had to duck to avoid the fist swinging towards his face. An excited look came over the Asgardian. "So the fight has begun already? Excellent."

Miriam swung at him again, and he blocked with one arm. While he blocked that side, Miriam jumped up to kick at him. He had to jump back to avoid being hit. He seemed glad that Miriam was going hard. He knew that the girl couldn't seriously injure him, at least not at the moment, so he didn't mind her fighting with her best effort. He also kept in mind that she was still hurt, so he definitely held back a lot more than he would've if he were fighting against one of his shield-brothers or shield-sisters.

Thor caught his balance, and swung out at Miriam. She ducked right under his arm, and rolled under his legs. Still on the floor, she swiped her own legs right at the back of Thor's knees. The kick wasn't strong enough to knock him down, but it did throw him a bit off balance.

He turned, and Miriam sprang back to her feet. She jumped up rolled around Thor until she had an opening, and her arm shot out. Thor's arm came up and blocked her, and she grabbed his arm to use as leverage while she swung herself up and kicked him in the throat.

Then she dropped down and took a few steps back, panting and sweating. "This isn't right. All of my limbs hurt right now. Like they're on fire."

"It's your muscles being forced to do actual work," Miriam turned to see Natasha standing near the mat, an intrigued look on her face. "You're actually pretty good for someone who's never had to use your muscles before. You've got a lot of potential to be a good fighter. You've got pretty good stamina, too, to keep up with Thor. And you even managed to hit him pretty hard."

Miriam scowled. "I certainly don't need encouragement from you."

Thor chuckled. "You should never take your eyes off of your opponent my friend." Thor hit Miriam in the back and she fell forward. He knelt down and used his knee to pin her to the mat. "Do you admit defeat, my friend?"

The girl sighed, and didn't bother flailing around, since she knew that she wouldn't be able to dislodge the Asgardian. "Yeah, fine, whatever." Thor stood and reached down to offer Miriam a hand to help her back up. She stood up without his help. "Why do I feel like this?"

Natasha handed her a bottle of water. "Here. You're dehydrated from working out like that without eating anything this morning. I know you're probably used to being able to get by without anything, but you have to learn now that you're going to need to get used to the idea that now you need to eat and drink water if you want to survive. And if you want to get revenge on the Asgardians, or whatever, then you've got to survive. So drink up."

Miriam reluctantly accepted the water, and chugged it down. She was feeling pretty thirsty, and her whole body ached. This was so unfair. She could once fight and do whatever she wanted to with no consequences. Now it was work just to keep her body functioning. She wondered how Midgardians had managed to survive so long on these stupid rules.

As they were walking out of the training room, Thor gave Miriam an excited look. "You must now write a letter for me to get to my brother. I think that it shall be good for both of you. And I do promise to not look at any of your messages back and forth."

Miriam rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever. I'll get the finished letter to you before I go to bed tonight, okay?" Thor nodded, and then the two parted ways. Miriam headed back to her room, and flopped down onto the nest of blankets she'd made on the floor. Doing that made this place feel just a bit more like home. Too bad it didn't have the other important part of home, though, which would be having Ar'iaal here with her right now. Miriam closed her eyes, and let herself dream of Ar'iaal, letting his presence push aside the dreams of death and destruction she'd been forced to see for ten thousand years.


	15. Chapter 15

**wolftattoo- Miriam will definitely raise hell for the Avengers. Even as she slowly realizes that they're not quite as bad as she originally thought, she will continue to be a handful. And though it may take some time, I do believe that Miriam will eventually have all of her power back in her possession. I'm glad that you're enjoying this all so far :)**

_Ar'iaal chuckled, and ducked aside. Miriam's eyes widened in delight at the challenge, and she leapt forward again. After another few minutes, it was easy to claim that the two opponents were equally matched. As soon as Ar'iaal held out his hand, indicating that the match was over, Miriam grabbed his arm and used it slam him down on the ground beside her._

_He pouted for a moment, and then broke out into laughter. They both laughed for a while after that. They both laid on the grass, staring up at the violet sky. A shooting star ran past, and Miriam sighed wistfully. "Sometimes I wish that we could just dance around all of the planets we want to, all across the galaxy. With as much freedom as that star."_

_Ar'iaal smiled. "We can. We can do whatever the hell we want. No one's left to tell us 'no'."_

_Miriam peered over at Ar'iaal at that, and saw that his gaze was still directed up. "Do you ever regret it? Staying behind with me? Because of that choice, you're forced to live alone."_

_Ari'aal quickly shook his head. "Never. Not even for a second. Our people are complete douche nozzles to think that they'd ever be better off without us. Your mom has no idea what she's missing out on by not getting to spend more time with you. And besides, it's not like I'm totally alone. I've got you by my side, and you're my best friend in the entire universe."_

"_I'm your only friend in the entire universe." _

_Ar'iaal laughed, and playfully shoved against Miriam's shoulder. It's not like he could ever hurt her. And it's not like she could ever hurt him either. The only thing that could ever truly incapacitate an eternal was extreme emotion, and even that wouldn't actually kill one of the immortal beings._

_No matter what Ar'iaal said, though, Miriam wasn't appeased. After that day, she found herself always noticing the look of regret that would quickly wash over him whenever Miriam messed up. She knew that Ar'iaal wished that he could be with the rest of his family. But if Miriam had known that confronting him would lead to losing him for good, then Miriam would've never said a word, and Ar'iaal would've never raised his hand against his best friend in the entire universe._

Miriam slowly opened her eyes, and felt the pile of blankets beneath her. But the room around her was not one of the spacious caves that her and Ar'iaal had resided in so many years ago. This was the Avengers' base, and Miriam was really no better than a prisoner, being held against her will, simply because there were so many people out there who were afraid of her.

There was a soft knock on the door a little while after Miriam had woken up, and she pulled a blanket up over her head and closed her eyes, feigning sleep. Hopefully that would be enough to keep those villains away from her.

No such luck. The door swung open after a few more knocks were met with no response. There was the sound of someone clearing their throat. "Miriam? Uh, I don't mean to wake you, but-"

Miriam suddenly shoved back her blanket a bit, and peered up at Sam with one raised eyebrow. "Who said that I was sleeping?"

Sam sighed in annoyance. "I just came to tell you that Thor's finally back from Asgard. We all know how anxious you got as soon as he left, and this was a particularly long trip, but he said that he needs to call an immediate meeting for the Avengers and you. You might want to make your way to the conference soon if you don't want to miss whatever it is that he's got to talk about." Then he turned to head to the conference room.

Miriam laughed to herself and got up, fully dressed and not at all tired looking. She took a quicker path to the conference room, and couldn't help feeling some smug satisfaction when Sam looked confused to see that she'd arrived there before him. He hadn't been expecting that.

A few minutes later, Thor walked into the room. He headed right over to Miriam, who was spinning around in one of the swivel chairs like she had nothing better to do with her time. "Miriam. My friend, I bring you a letter from my brother. Since this involves only you, you may have it now, while the rest of my news involves the whole team, so I must speak with all of them first."

Miriam looked at Thor with one raised eyebrow, then shrugged. She didn't particularly care about whether she was kicked out of a stupid Avengers meeting or not. They'd already concluded that she really had nothing to do with any of them, and that she wanted it to remain that way.

So Miriam headed down to the training room. It was guaranteed to be empty right now, since it was for the Avengers only, and all of the Avengers were attending some top secret meeting. She'd been going there a lot in the past month since Thor had headed back to Asgard. At first, a few of the others seemed like they wanted to say something about it, but when they realized that she was simply there to train her body and not cause trouble, they decided that they had no reason to just go and kick her out or anything.

In the training room, Miriam sat down on one of the large mats that was usually used for sparring between the teammates. She opened up the envelope, which was still sealed, and pulled out the sheaf of parchment that was inside. Well, not parchment exactly, but it also wasn't Midgardian paper. It was somewhere in between the two materials.

This time, the letter was written in the language of the Kree. At this point, Loki knew that Miriam understood any language that he could throw at her, and he was simply doing it to keep their privacy and to help amuse both of them a little bit more sometimes.

Miriam couldn't help smiling a bit as she read about one of Loki's many childhood adventures. This one involved him running off to meet some elves, and getting stranded, and having to stay with the elves for almost an entire week before Odin came for him. He believed that it was Odin trying to get rid of him, but Miriam suspected that it was just Odin trying to teach Loki a lesson about running away like that.

When she'd finished reading the letter, Miriam folded it in half and slipped it into one of her pockets. She'd begun borrowing clothes from Natasha, and most of the pants she borrowed had many more pockets than Miriam was used to. Then she was about to toss the envelope, when she realized that it still felt thick enough to have something inside. That was strange.

Before Miriam could investigate further, she heard the thunderous footsteps of the god of thunder. She shoved the envelope into a different pocket, as it was now something to be looked into. Later, though.

Thor smiled. "We have reached a conclusion concerning the idea I thought to bring to the table. We'd like you to hear us out." They began to walk back to the conference room. When Thor noticed that Miriam seemed distracted, he patted her on the back in what he thought was a comforting manner. "Do not fear, we haven't come up with some horrible torture to subject you to. Though I will ask that you remain civil, no matter what your reaction is to all of it."

Miriam rolled her eyes. "I can't make any promises when I don't even know what 'it' is."

Thor ignored that, and they arrived at the conference room a moment later. He held the door open, and Miriam walked inside. She saw that there were two open seats, one between Steve and Sam, and the other between Wanda and Natasha. Miriam only had a moment to choose which of those spots would be the safest, and ultimately came to the conclusion that she'd rather not bring herself down to the same level as these fools.

While Thor sat and stared at Miriam expectantly, she just stayed where she was, crossed her arms over her chest, and raised one eyebrow. "So? What exactly are we all gathered here to discuss?"

Thor looked like he wanted to explain everything, but Steve gave him a gentle look that conveyed the fact he thought Miriam would take it better from him. Whatever it was. The other Avengers were all shifting uncomfortably in their seats, looking like they didn't think that this was the right decision. Since Miriam didn't know what decision had been made, she really couldn't say what she thought about it one way or the other.

Steve cleared his throat, trying not to look awkward, and not succeeding very well. "We've been discussing a few things. Things that Thor actually suggested. But before we say anything else, we have a few questions for you." Miriam let out a soft huff of annoyance, but she didn't say anything to interrupt the Avenger. "How exactly did you extract your power from Vision while still allowing him to keep the power of the stone itself?"

Miriam shrugged, and she felt like she really didn't know the answer. They'd all been there to see the way that she had looked just as unsure of herself as everyone else had. None of them had fully believed she'd be able to do it.

"Mostly it came down to instinct. I knew that some of the power in him belonged with me, and the power recognized that too. So it wasn't too difficult to just sort of… nudge it in the right direction. The right direction being me, of course."

Vision looked the most fascinated by that out of everybody. Maybe because he'd been so directly involved. Or maybe because he still held a child-like curiosity for so many things, since he was really still just a baby, no matter how adult he may act sometimes. "Do you believe yourself capable of recreating that process?" Steve shot Vision a disapproving look at the disruption, but he didn't say anything else.

Miriam stared at Vision with narrowed eyes, and then she shook her head. "No way. I've already taken all of my power that you had in you. There's nothing left for me to extract, or whatever you want to call it."

Thor shook his head. "Not on the man of sight. On a different one of the stones. If you were to have one in your hands, would you be able to remove your power while leaving behind what was already in the stone long before you were even born? Because if you could-"

The eternal was a lot smarter than anyone really gave her credit for. Probably because everytime they saw her face, they would find it only too easy to forget that she was much older than all of them combined. "The blue one. The one that I found in the Asgardian treasure room. You called it the tesseract, right? That's presumably the only other one that you've got any sort of control over. You want me to remove my power from it? Even though that'll make me closer to being normal again? And my normal involves punching planets that bug me out of existence?"

Before Thor could answer, Natasha decided to cut in. "When you do drain your power from the stones, is it possible for you to take the stone's power as well? Whether by accident or on purpose?"

Miriam hesitated, then shrugged. "You're asking me this like it's some kind of common occurrence for a whole bunch of deranged Asgardians to remove my powers from me and stick them into a whole bunch of old rocks. I have no idea. But I would assume that I can't. I mean, I'll be the first to admit that I'm probably one of the most powerful people you'll ever meet. Or I was, a long time ago. But even I'm a bit scared of what would happen if one person were to try and wield the power of all of the stones combined."

Steve seemed to accept that answer, though it really didn't make the other Avengers look less on edge. Well, Thor and Vision didn't look any different than normal. It was Natasha, Wanda, Sam, and Rhodey that all looked like they had a problem but didn't want to say anything about it.

Miriam turned her attention to Thor. He always seemed to be her biggest defender, for whatever reason. She could use that. "Would you really let me get back even a little bit more of myself?"

Thor glanced at Steve before smiling at Miriam. "We would. However, there is one condition." Miriam slouched down a bit at that. Whatever the condition was, she didn't think that she'd want to hear it. "Once you get back another bit of your power you'll be stronger in many ways, right?"  
Miriam nodded slowly. "Getting that first stone gave me back a bit of my power, along with making me just a tiny bit more strong and durable in the physical sense. Presumably, a second stone would only add to that. Why?"  
Thor nodded thoughtfully. "Odin has agreed to let me bring you together with the tesseract, but he doesn't want it leaving Asgard. Which is why you must agree to go peacefully to Asgard. You cannot just slay every Asgardian you see, simply because of a ten thousand year old grudge. If you can promise to behave yourself, then your power from the tesseract will be yours again."

"That's the condition?" Thor nodded, and Miriam relaxed her tense shoulders. "Alright then. Saving my vengeance for another day in exchange for getting part of myself back? That's not even a choice. How soon can we go?"

Thor chuckled at Miriam's impatience, though Miriam didn't find it very amusing. She thought that if someone removed Thor's hammer, for example, he'd want to do everything in his power to get it back as soon as possible, because he'd feel pretty weak without it. But no one seemed to fully grasp the predicament that the Asgardians had put Miriam in, so it made sense that Thor didn't understand it either.

"We can leave for Asgard as soon as tomorrow evening. Then we'll quickly get you to the tesseract, and then back home."

Miriam nodded, and left the conference room. She wondered why the Avengers had suddenly decided that she wasn't super dangerous. It seemed a bit at odds with their quest of protecting the Earth to let a dangerous alien regain strength before going back to Earth.

But Miriam wasn't going to question it for now. It would feel so good to be even a little bit closer to who she'd once been. Miriam wondered which aspect of her power was locked away in the stone within that blue cube. Then she wondered if any of the Asgardians had ever figured out how to open the casing, or if that would be for Miriam to figure out.

Either way, Miriam couldn't wait until tomorrow evening.


	16. Chapter 16

**Leafdragon117- Miriam isn't the name given to her at birth, but it is one of the many names she's been known as throughout her very long life. And also, I'm glad that you like Miriam and the story (:**

Miriam refused to let any sort of wonder cross her face as she took in the city of Asgard. It admittedly looked a bit different than it had ten thousand years ago. A bit more impressive. But still not nearly as impressive as some of the other worlds that Miriam had seen before. Back when she'd still been able to travel between planets like it was nothing.

Based on the fact that the tesseract had been necessary to transporting her and Thor from Midgard to Asgard, it made sense to assume that it contained the bit of Miriam's power that would once again allow her to travel freely through space in the same amount of time it would take a Midgardian to take a couple of steps forward.

As they walked through the large city, Miriam finally had to turn to glance up at Thor. "Why are we walking through this entire city rather than just having the tesseract bring us directly to the palace, or whatever that place is called?" She didn't mention the fact that there was a strange tugging sensation in her that felt like it would be able to lead her directly to the palace.

Thor smiled excitedly. "I was hoping to show you around the city that I grew up in!"

Miriam arched one eyebrow. "Why? So I'd be extra tempted to suddenly murder everyone?"

The god of thunder shook his head, seemingly unconcerned with what Miriam had just said. "So that you could see what an incredible place this is, and know that it would be wrong to murder everyone. Also, I thought that you could use the opportunity to walk around somewhere that isn't all long hallways and boring white walls. It's very easy to get too restless at the Avengers building."

Miriam shrugged, and didn't say anything in response. She wasn't really in the mood to discuss everything wrong with Asgard with Thor of all people. If he couldn't figure out Miriam's aversion to these people simply based off of what she'd told the Avengers, then he clearly wasn't smart enough to ever be able to figure it out. And if Thor couldn't understand Miriam's hostility towards his people, then it wasn't Miriam's job to try and explain. She was done trying to explain herself to others, and justify her actions. She'd been done since Ar'iaal had left her.

Thor glanced down at the smaller alien. "These people, these particular people who you are laying your eyes upon right at this moment, have no quarrel with you, as you should have none with them. They are not the ones who imprisoned you and took away your power so you should not blame them for the actions of their fathers and grandfathers."

Miriam scowled. "I'm going to blame whoever the hell I want for whatever the hell I want to blame them for. If I think that these people deserve to face justice for what they've done, then I know that they will." At Thor's nervous look, she rolled her eyes. "Oh, relax. I promised that I'll save my vengeance for another day, didn't I?" She peered up at Thor curiously. "You guys never did mention why the sudden change of heart."

The god frowned. "We have a dangerous enemy, and we know that he wishes for the power of the stones to belong entirely to him. You said that even you would fear the person who could wield it all, and it is our fear that this one being can. And once he has all of the stones in his possession, he shall bring about unimaginable destruction and pain and death."

Miriam smirked. "Midgard's mightiest heroes are frightened of one man? What's his name, the Boogeyman?"

Thor shook his head, not seeming to hear the sarcasm in the smaller being's voice. "No. We don't know much about him, other than that his name is Thanos, and he-" Thor continued talking in his booming voice, but Miriam suddenly froze in place. Her eyes were wide, and her chest was moving up and down quickly, like she'd just gone a round in the gym or something. She couldn't think, and couldn't hear anything else that Thor was saying. All she could hear was that one name bouncing around in her head, _Thanos, Thanos, Thanos_, and it was scarier than anything else she possible could've imagined.

Thor finally seemed to realize that Miriam was no longer following right behind him, because he turned back and strode over to the eternal in just a couple long strides. He looked down at her with one eyebrow raised. Miriam blinked a few times, and finally seemed to return to the present. She gulped. "Sorry, I must've let my mind wander for a moment there. What did you just say?"

Thor looked up as he tried to silently go back over everything that he'd said in the past couple of minutes. Finally he shook his head. "I have said many things, my friend. I'm not sure what piece of information you are looking for me to repeat."

Miriam sighed. "The name of the guy you think is strong enough to take on the power of all of the stones? What did you say his name was?"

"Thanos," Thor replied slowly, like he was speaking to a child or something. "Have you heard of this being before?"

Miriam gulped again. She only had a few seconds to decide how much of her life she was willing to share with this man who was still basically a stranger. Then again, Thanos really was a pretty common name. She smiled, putting on an entire mask to hide the fact that she was freaking out inside. "Um, no, sorry. I guess I just misheard you. Wow, this is feeling awkward now. I'm just way too easy to freak out. Let's just keep on going to your fancy little summer home, okay?"

Thor looked uncertain. "Are you sure that you're alright?You seemed very freaked out by the sound of this being's name. And we assume that he is very old. Possibly even as old as you."

Miriam scoffed. "Yeah right, there's no one who could be the same age as me," she sighed. Then she mumbled, "he's a bit older," under her breath so that the Asgardian wouldn't be able to hear her. She shrugged. "Anyways, let's keep going. I can't stand the sight of these pathetic Asgardians for very much longer."

Thor nodded wisely, realizing that Miriam was definitely hiding something, and probably wasn't ever going to admit to whatever it was. But that was okay, because everyone was allowed their secrets, and someone who was as old as the girl was probably had quite a few secrets under her belt. He turned and continued walking, though he did pause for a moment to make sure that he could hear the sound of Miriam's footsteps behind his.

As they continued on towards the god's home, Miriam looked around the city with undisguised disgust. She couldn't care less about any of these Asgardians or their pitiful lives. But unlike some people, Miriam wasn't a promise breaker. She wasn't going to go back on her word, especially since it would be easiest to annihilate the Asgardians after she got the rest of her power back, and not just thirty percent of it.

Then Miriam's mind wandered to Ar'iaal, her childhood best friend. She hadn't seen him for several thousand years even before she'd been cursed and stripped of her power and locked away. Not since they'd argued, and he'd slapped her. And eternals were so emotionally constipated that just a bit too much, and their body couldn't handle it anymore. So he basically went to take a very long nap, and never woke up.

At least, Miriam didn't think that Ar'iaal had ever woken up. If he had, then he surely would have sought her out, right? If he'd found out that Miriam had been imprisoned by the stupid Asgardians, then he would've done everything in his power to set her free. Even if he couldn't wake her up, he'd certainly have moved her back to their home, or whatever new one he'd found, until he'd figured out a way to wake Miriam up.

So there's no way that Ar'iaal could possibly be awake, which meant that he was still comatose in whatever remote little corner he'd buried himself in. Miriam wasn't sure whether she was supposed to be relieved by that thought or not. Ar'iaal had always been her best friend in the entire universe. He didn't deserve permanent punishment just because he'd slapped Miriam once over something she'd said. It's not like either of them truly were capable of harming each other. Even now, they were incapable of harming each other, simply because of what was in their hearts. It had nothing to do with their physical strength. Miriam knew that Ar'iaal would never hurt her. If they were to meet under these conditions, he'd probably be frustratingly gentle around her.

Before Miriam realized it, Thor was motioning for her to walk up the steps next to him. She frowned. Walking into Odin's home side by side with his son was sure to be some kind of significant 'stick it' to the king of the Asgardians. She peered up at Thor, who simply gave her an innocent little grin. Miriam wasn't sure whether he was faking it or not, and decided that she didn't really care.

A couple of large Asgardians decked out in full armor opened the gates to let Thor and Miriam inside, though they apparently couldn't refrain from throwing Miriam looks of distaste. A lot of stories must've spread around about her in the time since she'd been exiled to Midgard.

Once inside the actual building, they walked down a few long corridors. Miriam found her chest feeling tight, and knew that she was pushing this mortal body too hard, but she wasn't going to ask Thor to slow down. Even as a weakling, she could still keep her dignity, and the appearance of strength.

A few minutes later, Thor slowed his pace. He didn't say anything, and Miriam chose to keep quiet as well. At the slower pace, it took them another few minutes to reach their destination. Miriam looked around, but not much of this palace looked very familiar to her. She'd been too broken last time she was here to really pay much attention to the scenery.

The two guards standing on either side of the double doors both gave Thor a slight nod, and didn't acknowledge Miriam's presence at all. Then they swung the large doors open, and Miriam walked in next to Thor. This room, she recognized. The treasure room.

And the tugging sensation that had been pushed to the back of Miriam's mind was now back full force, yanking her forward before she could even think about it. She walked across the room, fighting to not break out into a full sprint. There, sitting up on a pedestal, was a blue cube. Now that it was in her sight, the tugging eased up enough that it was barely noticeable.

She reached up to grab it, but her arms were grabbed away. Miriam looked up into the grizzled, bearded face of Odin. "Do you know why you are being allowed this? Because make no mistake, this is an allowance. You are owed nothing."

Thor walked closer. "I explained it to her on the way over."

Miriam nodded. She didn't think it was important to mention the fact that she'd been letting her mind wander for the majority of the time Thor had been explaining. It had been hard to concentrate once she'd heard that familiar and very frightening name. When Odin didn't release her wrists, she wiggled them impatiently.

Odin raised one eyebrow. "Tell me, then. Tell me why this allowance is being made."

Miriam groaned. She was so close. If only she could reach out and grab it. "Thanos-" She sucked in a quick gasp. There wasn't much else she could say even if she wanted to. She had no idea what the Avengers thought she had to do with Thanos, of all people.

The king of gods sighed. "He is a very powerful being. If given the opportunity, he will use the power of these stones to cause more devastation than you could even imagine. He's worse than you ever were. We simply aim to reduce his chances, even by a little bit, by putting the power back into you instead. Just him having the stones will be bad enough, we don't need him having you as well." He glanced over at Thor, who was standing tall under his father's gaze. "My son believes that we should trust you. That if you promised to not harm anyone, then you really won't. Is this true? Can we trust you?"

Of course they couldn't. Miriam was going to be paying Asgard just as soon as she had all of her power back. And once the tesseract power was back where it belonged, Miriam would be able to hop on over to the next galaxy, getting herself as far away from Midgard and Asgard as possible. Then when she was strong enough, she'd return, and everyone would regret this one moment. But Miriam wasn't going to tell that to the large Asgardian still holding her captive. At least not all of that.

Miriam gulped, and slowly shook her head. "No. I can barely trust myself most of the time. I'll always feel that your people have wronged me, and I'll always wish to exact my revenge for that."

Odin suddenly released Miriam, and she took an automatic step back. "If you had tried to convince me that you're trustworthy, then I would never believe you." He stepped away, and gestured to the glowing cube. "You may take what is yours, and nothing more."

Miriam hurriedly closed the gap between herself in the stone. She grabbed the cube, and held it out in front of herself. It was a breathtaking shade of blue. They reminded Miriam of Ar'iaal's eyes. She didn't even look back at the Asgardians as she raised the cube up over her head, and smashed it down on the pedestal. She smashed it down again a few times, ignoring the way that she could feel Odin's eyes burning into her back, wondering what the hell she was doing.

After a few more tries, the cube popped open, revealing the little blue rock inside. Miriam took a deep breath, then reached forward and wrapped her hand around the stone. She lifted it to her mouth and pressed a little kiss against it, then held it over her chest. A blue glow suddenly surrounded Miriam, and when she opened her eyes, they were also blue.

The stone's color began to fade until it was just plain white, and the glow around Miriam seemed to grow stronger each second the stone grew paler. The Asgardians stood their ground warily as Miriam's feet lifted off the ground, and when she blinked again, her eyes were completely red, including her pupils and irises.

Miriam slowly stretched out all of her limbs, like she was getting used to the feeling of them, and then a moment later, she sank back down to the floor gracefully. She blinked a few times and her eyes were back to normal. She looked down at the stone in her hand, and then up at Odin. "You still won't be able to touch this without exploding. Probably. I mean, you could always test it out just so that we know for sure?"

Odin shook his head. "Put it back into it's case." Miriam obliged, and put the smooth white rock back into the slot that had previously held a lumpy blue one. Once the cube was sealed shut again, it was simply translucent. She put the cube back down on the pedestal.

When Miriam looked up to meet Thor's eyes, she saw that he looked excited. He was excited for her. Glad that she was slowly regaining her old self. Miriam could tell as soon as she touched the stone that it had indeed contained her ability to travel through space. It had also returned some of her former strength and durability, which was nice.

Thor reached up out one hand expectantly. "Let us return to Midgard, and the rest of my shield brothers and sisters." He looked at the cube. "Will we still need the tesseract?"

Miriam shook her head. There was no point in trying to hide her newly recovered abilities, since they'd come out eventually, one way or another. She took Thor's hand. "Alright, let's go back before I'm tempted to kill anyone." She wasn't strong enough. Not yet, anyways.

A flash of blue surrounded the pair of aliens, and a moment later, they were standing right on the front lawn of the Avengers building. Thor grinned. "Let us go and tell the Avengers the good news."

Miriam grimaced as she thought about how much more the Avengers were going to dislike her now. "Ah, you go on ahead. I need to… catch my breath." Thor nodded, and strode towards the building.

Miriam blinked, and found herself in her room a moment later, where she sank down onto the bed. She suddenly felt exhausted. Eternals weren't supposed to feel exhausted. Stupid Asgardians.


	17. Chapter 17

**TS4Life- I'm glad that you like it so much. To be honest, I kind of expected people to dislike Miriam, but most people seem to be rooting for her. As for Loki, I couldn't help feeling the similarities between them, so I had to write it. Anyways, here's the next chapter (:**

**WrittenWithLove765- Thank you so much and here you go!**

**wolftattoo- Miriam's real name is actually going to be a big reveal, so I'm keeping my lips sealed on the matter :)**

"Wanna spar with me?" If Thor was surprised that Miriam had sought him out, then he didn't let it show. Usually the other Avengers had to invite her to practice fighting with them.

Thor nodded. "That sounds like an excellent idea! Let us proceed to the gym!" Miriam followed the Asgardian to the gym.

When they got there, Natasha, Wanda, and Rhodey were already there. They made sure not to stare, because they knew from experience that if they paid too much attention to Miriam, she'd storm away. And this was the first time they'd be seeing her fight since her trip to Asgard, so they were curious to see how much stronger she was now.

Thor and Miriam stepped onto an empty mat and faced off against each other. Like he almost always did, Thor waited for Miriam to take the first swing. She obliged and lunger forward, punching one of her arms towards Thor's neck while aiming to kick him in the gut.

Thor reached up and knocked aside her arm, then swung her over his head, so she landed on the mat behind him. He turned to face her, but she was suddenly behind him again, without anyone having seen her get up and move. The other Avengers didn't even realize that they'd stopped what they were working on to watch the battle.

Thor was confused, until Miriam jumped up, and kicked him in the back of the head. He turned and lunged forward. Miriam appeared behind him again, and even though she was already sweating and red faced, she still had the energy to laugh. "You'll never guess who I learned this move from."

The Asgardian turned and started to leap at Miriam. Then he dug his feet into the mat and spun around, which meant he was facing Miriam head on. She was a bit surprised that he'd caught on so quickly, but that didn't mean that he was going to win this one.

She appeared right above him, and dropped down so that her elbow dug into his head. While he took a moment to reorient himself, Miriam swung both of her legs around to kick Thor in the sides as hard as she could. Then she grabbed onto his shoulders, and slid down a bit so she could elbow him in the nose.

Then she was behind him, swiping her legs towards the backs of his knees. He turned around, and Miriam appeared next to him. She quickly punched him twice in the face. Then she shoved him to the ground, and he lost his balance, so he went. She grabbed his shoulders, and slammed him down onto her knee.

There were several very loud 'cracks' at that. Thor flopped back onto the mat, and even though Miriam was making a pained grimace, she remained standing so that she could call herself the victor.

Natasha walked over and knelt next to the god. She tilted his head back, and saw a small stream of blood running down from his nose. "I think you broke it." She looked towards Miriam, a look of respect on her face, which quickly turned to worry.

Miriam clenched her teeth. "Good. So then I've won." There was a large bloodstain on the knee of her pants that was quickly growing, and she didn't look like she was planning on walking anywhere anytime soon.

Wanda and Rhodey decided that it was safe to get closer as well. Wanda whistled. "Apparently Asgardians have hard faces. You broke his nose, but it looks like his face broke your knee cap. That teleporting trick was neat, though. I'm assuming that it's an effect of the tesseract?"

Miriam nodded. "Yeah, as far as I can tell." She slid down so that she was sitting on the mat, and she rolled up one of the legs of her pants. She winced at the sight of fragmented bone sticking up through the thin skin of her knee. "Damn. I was hoping that maybe two stones would be enough for me to be beyond the point where I can still break bone."

Rhodey grimaced. "How are you even still conscious? We know that you can feel pain and be incapacitated by it."

Miriam shrugged. "Determination, I suppose. I wouldn't look like much of a winner if I passed out right after the battle. I'm going to head to the medical area of this building now." Thor moved like he was going to pick her up, and Miriam narrowed her eyes. "I can get there just fine on my own now, remember?" And a moment later, she was gone from sight.

Natasha stood up, and looked down at Thor curiously. "Will you be needing medical attention as well?"

Thor shook his head head, looking pretty cheerful for a guy who had blood dripping down his face. "I believe I shall do what you call 'walking it off'. Though I would not be adverse to checking on Miriam's well being. She goes to many lengths to prove herself worthy of us."

Wanda looked worried. "What if she ends up dead? I mean, if she's so willing to do whatever it takes to win, including letting herself get hurt, then how do we know that she won't get herself killed because she doesn't know when to back down?"

Thor frowned for a moment, and then his smile was back. "She would not let that happen. Getting hurt to win is acceptable because it means that she still won. Dying would be an automatic loss, which she would never allow."

Rhodey rolled his eyes. "Great. So we don't have to worry about her acting suicidal, just reckless to the point where we might see her bones. You are not supposed to be able to look at someone's bones from the outside!"  
Wanda patted his shoulder comfortingly. "If it makes you feel any better, eternals may have a different biological makeup than humans. Maybe they have bones that are supposed to come out occasionally?"

Natasha snorted. "Because that would make so much sense for a race of indestructible people."

Wanda rolled her eyes. "Hey now. There's no reason to be so snippy. I'm just trying to be helpful." She looked to the god. "I'll come with you to make sure that she's alright. That was a pretty nasty looking wound."

Even though they didn't agree to go as well, both Natasha and Rhodey ended up following Thor and Wanda to the little hospital. One of the nurses looked up when she saw them come in. She spotted the blood on Thor's face and frowned. "It must be a Tuesday."

Thor shook his head. "We are only here to check on the health of our friend Miriam."

Rhodey scoffed, and muttered, "I wouldn't exactly call her friend. We barely know enough about her to consider her an acquaintance."

The nurse ignored Rhodey, and looked pretty relieved that she wasn't going to be relied on to patch up one of the actual Avengers. That would be pretty stressful, considering how important the Avengers were. Fixing up that girl wasn't too stressful, though. No one outside of the Avengers knew why she was even there, since she clearly wasn't one of them, and she definitely wasn't old enough to be an agent of anything. The running theory was that she was one of the Avenger's daughter. The fact that she didn't hold much resemblance to any of them didn't really mean anything.

She led them to the little room with Miriam in it, and the four actual superheroes went inside. There were doctors walking quickly around, shouting at each other. Wanda peered over at one of the doctors for a moment, then looked up at Thor. "Don't worry, it isn't a fatal injury. They'll be able to patch her up just fine."

There was a slight whine to the voice that spoke in response to Wanda. "Hey, don't talk about me like I'm not right in front of you." All of the Avengers couldn't hide that they were surprised to see Miriam still conscious, and looking lucid for the most part.

At the questioning look they were all giving, one of the doctors sighed. "Her system is burning through the painkillers we've tried to give her."

Miriam couldn't hide the triumphant look she was wearing. "I'm starting to get stronger again, I can feel it." She winced as one of the doctors did something. "I just wish that maybe this part could've waited until after the part where I stop getting hurt at all."

The doctors seemed pretty frustrated themselves, having to work on a moving, squirming person. They were afraid that she'd move while they were trying to push the bone back in, and they'd end up making the current injury even worse.

Miriam reached into her pocket while one of the doctors was trying to reach over that arm. It was not a very good working system. She pulled out a slightly crumped envelope. "Sorry about the sweat stains on it. I forgot to take it out of my pocket before our match. Here. Take it to your brother."

As he always had lately, he looked slightly curious about the contents of the letter, but he wasn't going to read it because he was honorable to his word. He pocketed it carefully, and nodded. "I shall make sure that he receives it. Though aren't you now capable of delivering it to him yourself?"

Miriam shuddered. "No way do I want to go back there. If I go back to your planet, it'll be to kick everyone's asses. There's no way I can look at all those smug Asgardians without wanting to punch them really hard. No offense."

Thor grinned. "If you could break all of their noses the way you did mine, I'd be too impressed to be angry on their behalves."

Miriam raised one eyebrow. "Is that permission to go and fight your people?"

Thor cheerily shook his head. "Absolutely not."

One of the doctors finally just pinned Miriam's moving arm down to the bed. "Listen, I know that this hurts and it's a pain in the butt, but there's nothing we can do if you keep wiggling around. And if we accidentally make it worse, or can't work on you at all, then you're going to be feeling this pain for a while. So just work with us here, okay?"

The eternal sighed dramatically, but she knew that they were right. For as long as she was as weak as a Midgardian, she'd have to suffer through their painful treatment methods, and there wasn't really anything else that could be done about it.

It was about half an hour later that Miriam was lying back in her own bed, or at least in the bed that was in her room in the Avengers building. Of course that wasn't _her_ bed, but it was the one she was using for now, and it was better than those hospital beds, no matter how squishy those things were.

There was a cast going from halfway down her thigh to the top of her calf. It kept her leg locked in a mostly straight position, and she'd been told not to walk on it for at least four weeks, and they'd given her a wheelchair. She declined the wheelchair, now that she could move around in a much more efficient (and fun) manner. They'd told her that she should stick with bed rest for at least one week. She'd left right after that.

Now Miriam was staring up at her ceiling, wondering what the heck she was supposed to do for an entire week if all she could do was lie on this bed. Then she grinned to herself. The doctors hadn't said that her bedrest all needed to be done in the same bed, and she did have the ability to move around without walking, so she wouldn't even be breaking the rules that they'd set.

Thor had been right. There was no reason Miriam needed to keep using him as a middle man. In fact, there really wasn't any reason she needed to keep communicating via letters, other than so they could write in strange languages that almost no one else around these parts would be able to understand.

Since she was injured, going too far away would be out of the question, but going to another planet within the same system wouldn't be that straining. So Miriam decided that maybe it would be best for her to take a quick vacation to the Asgard. The Avengers already knew she wasn't going to just leave, but they still must've thought that the intrigue of letters with Loki would be enough to keep her around. Now she could get to Asgard from anywhere on Midgard.

And she hadn't thought of it earlier, but it would be easy enough to just bring herself right to the palace so that she wouldn't have to walk through the city of assholes. She was supposed to be staying off of her feet anyways, so this would be perfect. Miriam quickly scribbled out a note explaining where she was going so the Avengers wouldn't think that she was just ditching them again. It would be an annoyance to have to call off a search party, or something.

She blinked, and a moment later, she was lying on a large bed covered in various furs and large comfy pillows. There was no one else around, and Miriam thought that this would be a very opportune time to do some snooping around. There was a helmet with giant horns hanging from one of the walls. There was a photograph of Freya. A sketchbook lying on a table. She appeared next to the table, picked that up, appeared back on the bed, and flipped through it. The drawings inside were all very elegant, and somehow seemed so very Loki.

Before Miriam could look around some more, the giant door swung open and slammed into the wall. There was Loki, looking as blue as always. He looked ready to attack whoever was intruding in his room.

Miriam couldn't help laughing. There had been a time where she'd have been able to totally crush him before he even got the chance to open the door. Now she was lying on his bed, totally crippled. He seemed taken aback by the sound of laughter, and when he saw that it was Miriam, his eyes narrowed. "How did you get in here?"

A moment later, Miriam was standing behind him, and the pain that shot up her leg was worth it for the expression of confusion on his face when he turned around. "Well that's new."

Miriam grinned, and went back to the bed. "Thanks to how fast I am, I can even pull a few of your tricks. Actually beat your brother by doing that. It's a cool move, but it probably does help that he's not the sharpest guy around."

Loki laughed, and sat down on the bed next to Miriam. "No, he's certainly not. So if you can transport yourself around at will, why haven't you fled yet?"

Miriam sighed. "Because some idiotic Asgardians decided to 'scatter my power across the universe' by leaving all of the stones in one small area. At the moment, Midgard is probably the best central point anyways, and plus it means that I can visit you whenever I want." She couldn't help feeling a bit sad that she couldn't see Ar'iaal whenever she wanted to. He probably would've hated Loki. It would have been amazing to see them meet.

Loki rolled his eyes, but Miriam could see that he was pleased by her answer. He wasn't stupid though, so he noticed that heavy air that suddenly settled over them. And he could take a pretty good guess as to the cause of that. He cleared his throat. "You promised to tell me about the time you and Ar'iaal had to pretend to be sheep, remember?"

Miriam grinned, grateful that Loki seemed to understand her so well. She took in a deep breath, like she always did before launching into yet another epic tale. "Okay, so it started when we found this ship, but we didn't know it was a ship. How were we supposed to know it was a ship? It looked like random space debris or something…" And she couldn't help moving her hands every time she spoke, and cutting herself off mid-sentence to add details she'd almost forgotten to mention. The two misfits stayed like that for a while, just lying on the bed and exchanging all kinds of stories. It was really nice, for both of them.


	18. Chapter 18

**Sameen Hadiya- Thanks (:**

Miriam groaned when she heard the sound of someone knocking on the door. She rolled over in the direction that should have just pressed her up against the wall, but instead, she ended up sprawled on the floor.

Her eyes flew open, and she suddenly remembered that she'd spent the night at Loki's. They hadn't shared a bed (it would be pretty awkward considering how much older Miriam was), and Miriam wasn't actually quite sure where Loki had ended up spending the night.

When she didn't respond to the knocking on the door, it swung open, and Loki swept in, carrying a tray with some food on it. "I thought I'd bring you something to eat. Don't get used to this, though. It's only because you're too injured to walk on your own at the moment." He sighed gleefully. "I still can't believe you broke your knee on my brother's nose. I always knew he had a hard head, but this is just getting ridiculous."

Miriam snorted as she sat up and accepted the tray of food. She ate a few bites, then offered some to Loki, who sat down next to her. "This is pretty good. Maybe when I kill all the Asgardians, I'll leave the cooks alone."

Loki rolled his eyes. "I'm glad that you're pleased."

Miriam's eyes widened. "Wait- did you make this stuff yourself?" She raised her fork up into the air like it was some mighty trident and she was declaring a great victory. "I can't believe it! The great Loki Laufeyson believes that I'm worthy of cooking for! The next thing you know, we'll be getting married!"

Loki looked annoyed by that. "If you're not going to appreciate it-" He reached for the tray, but Miriam yanked it back, and because she'd moved so quickly, all the contents of the tray went flying across the room, spilling out onto the floor.

Miriam turned to looked at Loki with what she hoped was her best 'dogged eye' expression. That's what the Avengers had called it when people scrunched their faces up a certain way in order to get what they wanted. It was a pretty useful manipulation tactic from what Miriam had seen, but she wasn't sure that she was doing it right without having had any practice first. "Sorry?"

The jotun frowned, but he didn't really seem to be that angry about it. Maybe if she just offered to clean it all up, then he'd be willing to let it go as quickly as Miriam's tray had let go of its contents. Loki sighed. "Why do I put up with you?"

Miriam shrugged. "You know, lately I've been wondering the same thing myself. I think it's a survival tactic. You know that I'm going to be pretty deadly once my full power has returned to me, and you want to make sure that I don't just kill you off because I have an affection for you. Even if that is the case, it's certainly working, so congratulations."

Loki frowned. "I think that the more likely answer is that you're my only friend, and I'm yours." He said it in a soft voice, which made him sound even more vulnerable. Miriam realized that she had a lot of power here. She could completely crush this blue man. She could point out that she's got plenty of other friends (sort of). That she's very close with the brother he hates. That she didn't care about him at all; he just intrigued her.

But Miriam knew that she couldn't actually say any of those things. It was strange, because in the past, she'd never hesitated to hurt people by whatever random method popped into her head. But she didn't want to hurt Loki. Not now. Was he really her friend?

Wouldn't considering him a friend put him into the same category as Ar'iaal? Was it disrespectful to the memory of her best friend in the universe if she acknowledged that she might be making new friends now? Miriam let out a long sigh. "You're nothing like Ar'iaal," she hurried on when she saw the closed off look that covered Loki's face immediately. "How can two people who are so entirely different both hold so much space in my heart? It doesn't make any sense."

Loki looked at Miriam carefully. "You still consider him to be your friend? Even after everything that's happened?"

Miriam slowly nodded. "Yes. No matter what else, there's hundreds of thousands of years of friendship in our history. I can't just ignore that. Besides, he didn't ever really abandon me. Not the way that all of the others did. He went away because he was afraid of hurting me. The others left because they wanted nothing to do with me. Perhaps one of them glimpsed the future, and saw what a monster I'd become someday, so they thought it best to just cut ties. It wasn't an act of cruelty on their part, it was just them looking out for themselves. Ar'iaal didn't know that by leaving he'd hurt me far worse than a little slap." She looked down at her hands. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'll never forget Ar'iaal. But I also know that I'll never see him again. The universe is a large place and he could be literally anywhere. You are not a replacement for Ar'iaal. You are your entirely own thing, one that I love just as much."

Loki scoffed and stood up. "As if I care about the affections of a child."

Miriam rolled her eyes. "I'm way older than you. I'm way older than your dad, and probably your grandfather and great grandfather. I'm way older than you could ever even begin to hope you'll someday be. I am not a child."

Loki raised one eyebrow. "Not even among your own people?"

The eternal slouched her shoulders. "There's a reason that we're called what we are. 'Eternals'. It's because as far as anyone else in the universe is concerned, we may as well live forever. There were plenty who were far older than me all those years ago, let alone now. There were also some that were younger. When you live for that long, you don't really think of it in terms of 'children' and 'adults'. You're all just exactly who you are. You mature at your own pace, because everyone knows that you've got plenty of time to do it. It's not the same for us as it is for your Midgardians and Asgardians."

Loki sighed. "Fine, so you're not a child. But you do look like a child by Midgard or Asgard standards. What's with that? It doesn't seem like something that would be really helpful with the world conquering thing. And if you're so old already, how old do you have to be before you look any older than you are right now?"

Miriam shrugged. "Hell if I know. Ar'iaal's been my only example of our species for almost my entire life, and he's the same age as me. For all I know I'll look like this for all of eternity. Who cares? It just makes it that much easier for fools to underestimate me."

Loki chuckled, and nodded in agreement. "One would have to be rather idiotic to underestimate you." He frowned. "Should you not be returning to the Avengers soon? I doubt they've given you leave to stay on Asgard for so long."

The eternal rolled her eyes. "They are not my parents. They can't tell me what to do. Hell, even if they were my parents, they wouldn't be able to tell me what to do." She sighed. "I don't really want to go back. I much prefer to stay here with you."

That brought a genuine smile to Loki's face. "Now that you're a bit more powerful than before, you can come and visit anytime you want, right? The tesseract no longer dictates travel between our worlds, right?"

Miriam nodded. "Yeah, I guess that's true. In that case, I suppose that it is about time I start heading back. I did leave a note, but those guys get so crazy sometimes that they end up forgetting to check for something as simple as that." She shrugged. "I'll see you later, though, right?"

Loki smiled gently. "Well, now that you're the one with the ability to jump between worlds, I'd think that it's really up to you."

Much to Loki's surprise, Miriam lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. It only lasted a moment, and she pulled away before he could decide whether or not he'd wanted to return the gesture. "Then I'll be seeing you around, I promise." A moment later, there was a flash of bright blue, and then she had completely vanished from sight.

Miriam blinked, and found herself sitting on one of the practice mats in the Avengers gym. She almost snickered at the surprised look she saw on Wanda's face, who was standing right there. Wanda's shoulders slumped down, and she knelt down next to Miriam. She reached out cautiously. "Are you alright? Where have you been?"

Miriam rolled her eyes. "I left a note."

Wanda looked confused. "What are you talking about?" Then a look of understanding washed over her face. "Wait- you aren't talking about that page of nondescript scribbles, are you?"

The eternal frowned. "Oh shoot, did I forget to write in your Midgardian dialect?"

Wanda sighed. "I think you forgot to write in any known Midgardian dialect. We searched all the language data bases we could find, but there was no way for us to translate it. That's when we figured it was just random doodles or something."

Miriam nodded. "Yeah, I think I might have gone for Kree. It's a pretty well refined language. Much more sophisticated than the sorry excuse for a language that you like to use all the time. Definitely not scribbles."

Wanda stared at Miriam expectantly for a moment, but Miriam wasn't sure what the midgardian was expecting her to say. Finally, Wanda sighed. "So where did you end up going?"

Miriam nodded. "Oh. Yeah. I popped down to Asgard," Wanda immediately tensed up, and Miriam narrowed her eyes at the lack of trust these people put in her. "I didn't kill anyone, if that's what you're so concerned about. I wasn't there to cause trouble, I was simply visiting a friend."

Wanda grinned in excitement. "You have someone you'd willingly call your friend?" She tilted her head curiously. "Was it that guy from your memories? Ariel?"

Miriam crossed her arms over her chest. "It's pronounced _Ar'iaal_. And no, I was not visiting him. It would be a rather boring visit even if I could easily track him down. But it wasn't him. Believe me, if I found Ar'iaal, you wouldn't be seeing me around here anymore. He'd be more than enough help making sure that I get all of my power back. He's just as powerful as I was ten thousand years ago. He could just rip apart anyone that tries to stand between me and power. So if I ever found him, you'd never see me again."

Wanda still looked interested. "You mean that you wouldn't even come back here to kill us all, or something like that?"

Miriam sighed and shook her head. "No. You guys aren't even worth the time that it would take to kill you all."

To Miriam's surprise, Wanda grinned at that answer. "I'm glad to hear it." She stood up. "Come on, we should go make sure that everyone knows you're alright. And maybe you can program Kree into our machines so that we know were you're going next time you decide to take off. Everyone was really worried about you."

Miriam rolled her eyes. "Fine, tell me where everyone else is. I'll get there on my own. It would be much less humiliating than having to be transported by the likes of you."

"I'm pretty sure that I could just call them into here." She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, and sank down on the floor next to Miriam. She reached out to grab one of Miriam's hand, and Miriam only let her do that because she was a bit intrigued. When she opened her eyes, she had a tired smile on her face. "They should all be on the way."

The eternal couldn't help looking a bit impressed. "You called them here with your mind? Neat."

Wanda shrugged. "I've never really tried anything like that before. I think that it worked though. I think that maintaining contact with you definitely helped. I mean, since you went to Asgard with Thor, you've been exuding more power than ever. I think I might have borrowed a bit from you. I hope that's okay?"

Miriam shrugged. "I've got plenty to go around. Of course, not enough to really feel normal, but plenty enough that you could borrow a bit with no consequences. You might feel really tired, though. Your body isn't meant to conduct even a drop more power than you were born with, and if you did borrow some from mean, it means that you've put yourself through more exertion than normal."

Wanda sighed. "I don't think I'm going to have to wait until later for that. I already feel exhausted, like I just ran a couple of miles or something."

Before they could continue to discuss their fascinating topic, the doors to the gym swung open, and footsteps quickly rushed in. Everyone looked a bit confused. Thor stepped ahead of everyone else, thanks to his long legs. "Has Miriam been in here since yesterday? I'm surprised we didn't spot her sooner."

Wanda shook her head. "Don't be stupid. She did leave a note."

Steve raised one eyebrow. "I don't think that random doodles quite qualifies as a note."

Miriam awkwardly got to her feet, obviously holding almost all of her weight on her good leg. "It was in Kree. I forget myself sometimes. I wasn't off murdering entire civilizations or anything. I'm not strong enough for that yet. Plus I'm injured. I'd have to be pretty stupid." She shrugged. "The doctor recommended bed rest, but no one said that it had to be that boring bed I've got here. So I went to visit a friend. I didn't even have to break the bed rest rule."

Thor pulled the folded up piece of paper from an inner pocket of his shirt, and looked at it curiously. "Kree? What a strange looking thing. Next time would you write in English?"

Miriam shrugged lazily. "I was asleep the entire time humans were developing into anything worthy of attention. I'm not an expert at the Midgardian languages. It's easy enough to speak it after hearing it all around me, but I'm not going to pretend like I'm great at writing in any of them."

Thor frowned. "I would volunteer to assist you in learning quicker, but I fear that I wouldn't be the best teacher of the Midgardian English."

Steve took a few steps forward. "Maybe I could help you get better at writing in English? It's not that hard, I promise. Speaking it is the tough part, and you've already got that down."

Miriam sighed. "Why is Midgard so egotistical that it believes itself worthy of having so many different dialects? I mean, most of them aren't even close to being the same. I've never encountered another species so divided amongst themselves."

Natasha pushed past Thor. "Maybe we have a larger planet than you're used to encountering?"

Miriam snorted. "Ha! That's a good one!" She looked at Natasha with a sudden straight face. "For a planet covered in almost intelligent beings, it's tiny! I mean, Asgard is pretty much the same size, but the Asgardians aren't really spread around the planet the way you guys are here. But your planet it puny."

Rhodey's eyes widened. "So you mean that you've seen planets bigger than ours with intelligent species on them?"

Miriam shrugged casually. "I've destroyed planets three times bigger than Midgard in the time it takes one of you to yawn." She sighed wistfully. "Those were the days." She looked at the Avengers closely. "Where I'm originally from is probably about ten times larger than Midgard. It had to be, to account for the account that eternals are so much larger than Midgardians. Normally, anyways."

Natasha looked dubious of that. "You seem to be about the same size as the average human adolescent. Did those Asgardians shrink you down when they stole your power from you?"

Miriam's face flushed red. "Well, I've always been about this size. Losing my power did shrink me a bit, but even with all my power fully restored to me, I wouldn't be much larger than Thor. Embarressing, I know, but it's not like anyone was going to laugh at the person holding the fate of their entire world in my hands." She sighed. "Now I'm going back to my room. My knee is killing me. Glad to see that you've healed up nicely, though." And in a brief flash of blue, she disappeared before their very eyes.


	19. Chapter 19

**Sameen Hadiya- Thank you!**

Miriam watched with feigned boredom as the Avengers all ran around to change into their costumes before heading out. Before they left, Steve paused in front of her. "I know you're still healing right now, but you can come out with us next time, okay?"

Miriam shrugged. "I've already told you like a million times that I'm not interested in fighting crime, or whatever it is you guys do while wearing spandex. Don't be alarmed if I'm not around when you get back. I'm going to do some traveling."

The Avengers were all packed onto their little ship within a few minutes, and then they were gone. Miriam looked down at her leg. Her knee was wrapped in a tight bandage, and there was bruising that could be seen still, but it looked a lot better than it had a couple weeks ago. Miriam had learned that she was already healing two or three times faster than midgardians, which was a good sign.

And it was nice to be able to walk around again. Not that Miriam really minded traveling by constantly bending the fabric of the space around her, but there was something refreshing about a nice simple stroll.

As Ava walked back to her room, she happened to pass by the command room, which had the door open. The large screen on the wall showed what it always did when someone was trying to call. Miriam wasn't the Avenger's secretary, so she wasn't going to answer it, but then she decided it was time to see whether or not she could do long distance mind tricks yet or not.

She answered the call, and stared up at a man with an obviously receding hairline. He looked just as surprised to see Miriam as she felt to see him. But he managed to maintain a professional attitude, which was interesting. "May I ask who I am currently speaking with?"

Miriam grinned. "You may." Then she stared up at the man with a pleasant look on her face. Midgardians were so easy to push around that sometimes she just couldn't resist the temptation.

He blinked twice. "Who are you?"

Miriam had been planning on traveling around, and now she had a fun idea. "Tell me your location, and I'll tell you who I am." The man was starting to look at her suspiciously, so Miriam rolled her eyes. "Oh, you midgardians are so suspicious. Just give me a moment." She walked over to the the door of the command room, and pulled down one of the many photos that were pinned there. She held it up to the screen.

It was a picture taken the night that Miriam had bet that none of the Avengers could hold their drink. When they were starting to prove her wrong, she popped over to Asgard to grab some of their more potent stuff. Within an hour, the superheroes were all completely smashed, minus Thor, who really could hold his liquor. Someone had grabbed a picture, and they'd all awkwardly huddled into a group, Miriam squished right in the middle.

She helpfully pointed to herself in the photo. "This is me with the Avengers. We're… friends. So tell me who and where you are."

The man narrowed his eyes. "I'm afraid that it's classified." Miriam knew he was still talking, but she started to ignore him. She peered into the background of what she could see on the screen. There were a few maps with various pins stuck in them, and old looking things everywhere. There was a file on the table.

Miriam picked up the remote to the screen, and took a still picture of the scene. Then she exited out of the conversation with the now angry sounding man, and opened up the photo. She zoomed in, and saw that there was a file folder on top of the desk behind him. It said 'coulson' on it.

Miriam appeared down in the file room. Everyone had taken to keeping paper records of everything, since they were afraid of something coming to life and taking over the internet, or something. She was digging around for a while before she finally found a folder labeled 'Coulson, Phillip'.

She flipped it open and began scanning through the limited amount of information it contained. She found a photograph, and it matched the man she'd seen on the screen upstairs, but it had a stamp across that said 'deceased'. And as far as Miriam knew, that meant that he was dead. And yet alive. Fascinating.

Miriam ended up following a paper trail that led her all over the filing room. She was learning so much that she'd had no idea about before. She was so caught up in her reading that she didn't even notice someone else coming in. Miriam was interrupted by the sound of a soft laugh, and she looked up to see Steve standing in the doorway to the room. He clearly didn't want to step in any farther because he was afraid of stomping on one of the many important documents or folders that were strewn across the floor.

Miriam blinked a few times in confusion. "Aren't you guys supposed to be off on a mission right now, or something?"

Steve raised one eyebrow. "We got back a couple of hours ago. Someone said that they saw you heading this way. Aren't you hungry? You look like you haven't eaten anything all day."

Miriam got to her feet, wincing for a moment at the stiffness in her knee. Then she looked around sheepishly at the disorder she'd brought to the previously tidy room. "Oh. I'll clean this all up, I promise."

Steve shrugged. "It's not really that big a deal. But I am curious about what it is that you've been looking into with such vigor. I thought the going-ons around here didn't interest you?"

Miriam closed the folder she was currently holding, and put it down on top of one of the filing cabinets, where there was already a precariously balanced pile. "Someone called for you guys today while you were out. I talked to him for a minute, and I was intrigued. I wanted to find out where he's located so that I could pop in and surprise him. Wouldn't that be funny?"

Steve frowned. "You did all of this research just to startle somebody for laughs?"  
Miriam carefully shoved aside a few folders with the tips of her toes. "Well, that's what I started off looking for. But then I found myself pulled into this entire conspiracy about a government organization and how it was actually built by bad guys to look like a good guy organization so a lot of the people in it were bad guys, but there were also some who were good, and then they were going to like blow stuff up, and there was another old guy like you and you had to fight him and there was a-"

Steve held out his hands to motion for Miriam to stop and catch her breath for a moment. Then he tilted his head. "Wait, is all of that seriously in these files? Who would've even taken the time to record all of that down?"

Miriam shrugged. "I don't know. Most of the documents don't actually say who wrote them. But there was so much going on. But now the evil organization has been wiped off the map for all intents and purposes. They shouldn't ever be coming back. The only evil we've got to deal with now is the discord sown among everyone." Her eyes widened, and she shoved aside the top half of a stack of folders that had been on the floor. She shoved aside a few more until she reached the one that she was searching for. Then she pulled the top paper out from it, and held it up. "Have you seen this?"

Steve carefully avoided stepping on anything important as he moved closer. He got a quick glimpse, and it didn't look familiar. "No, what is it?"

Miriam gulped, and shoved the paper back into the folder. "You know what, it's not really that important. You should head back up. I'll just clean up a bit around here, and then get something to eat."

Steve looked at Miriam with some concern. "Should you really be dealing with all of this when your knee still isn't fully healed yet?"

The eternal nodded. "Yeah, it's cool. I got it." She waited until he left the room, and then she pulled out the document. Without knowing anything about the folder it was in, it would be basically impossible for Steve to ever find the copy backed up on the servers. So she shoved it into her pocket.

Then she began disappearing and reappearing around the room, scooping up files, and bringing them back to where they belonged. She was done with that about a half hour later, her mind still buzzing with all of the conspiracy stuff that she'd been reading about all day.

She popped up into the kitchen, and saw that there was no one else there. Despite how much she'd done today, she didn't really feel all that hungry. She still grabbed something though, so that her still weakened body wouldn't give out on her.

Then she went back to her room, and closed the door. There wasn't much privacy in that, though. So she poofed over to Loki's room, since it was the first place to pop into her head. He let out a rather unmanly screech when she just appeared there, and his inkwell fell over, spreading all over his papers.

Miriam felt really bad. "Oh, Loki, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. I wasn't even sure that you'd be in here. I just needed somewhere outside of the Avengers' eyesight to look this over." She pulled out the crumpled paper, and flattened it out as best she could over the edge of Loki's desk.

He snapped his fingers and the mess on the desk disappeared. Then he turned to look at Miriam's paper with interest. "It must be something rather important from the looks of it. And you're going to trust me of all people to see it?"

Miriam shrugged. "I mean, it's not like it affects anyone not living on Midgard anyways. So you wouldn't gain or lose anything by knowing or not knowing what it says." She moved the paper over so that Loki could get a good look at it too. She sounded a little embarrassed by her next statement. "While I'm already very proficient with the Midgardian dialect used by the Avengers, I fear that I must've misinterpreted this document."

Loki puzzled over it for a moment. "This looks to me like a proposal. Those idiotic Midgardians want to begin restricting their own kind. There's no support on it yet, as far as I can tell, but if this were to pass, then there would be a great many Midgardians affected by it."

Miriam walked past Loki to sink down onto his bed. Her knee was starting to ache. "Mind if I leave that here with you? I don't want the Avengers to see this and start freaking out. They'd be pretty harshly affected. I wonder whose idea it was in the first place."

Loki opened one of his desk drawers, and carefully placed the document in it. "Don't worry, it's perfectly safe here with me. Though I don't think that there's really much to worry about. Midgardians have always had a frustratingly stubborn quality that makes them constantly demand freedom. They wouldn't suddenly turn their backs on people and give up the fight. They're not like that." He cleared his throat. "Your knee is looking better."

Miriam had to pause for a few seconds to take in the sudden change in topic. Then she nodded in agreement. "Yeah. It's a sign that I'm on the right track to getting back to my previous glorious self. The version of me that was entirely indestructible."

The Asgardian rolled his eyes. "Hardly indestructible if you could be taken down by a thousand Asgardians slinging spells at you. Anyways, since it's mostly healed anyways, I could heal it the rest of the way, if you want."

Miriam grinned. "Boy, would that throw those idiots for a loop. And then I could back in the ring with Thor. I may have beaten him once, but if I don't keep practicing, I'm going to go out of shape." She held her injured leg out towards Loki. "I just don't understand how Midgardians have to survive when they've constantly got to worry about the maintenance of their bodies? They are bizarre creatures."

Loki sat down next to Miriam and gently pulled her leg so that it was resting on his lap. He closed his eyes, and held one hand just above the injured knee. He began whispering so quickly and quietly that even Miriam had trouble keeping up with what he was saying.

There was a bright flash of pain, and then a loud cracking noise. A moment later, Miriam wiggled her toes around, and to her delight, the motion didn't make her leg hurt at all. She unwrapped the bandage, and inspected her now thoroughly healed knee.

She pressed her fingers down over her knee, but there was no pain, so she laughed, and threw her arms around Loki's neck. "You're incredible!"

Loki pulled away after a moment, smirking. "Oh, believe me, I am already fully aware of that fact."

Miriam got up, and suddenly an idea occurred to her. "Hey, if you've beat your brother in combat so many times, you've got to be the superior fighter. Which means that if I can beat you, then I'm golden."

Loki shook his head. "Nice theory, but I'm afraid that it's entirely untrue. I only win using trickery, deceit, and magic."

The eternal nodded eagerly. "Yes, teach me how to do that!"

Loki sighed as though he was being forced to agree to get all of his teeth yanked out one by one. "Oh, alright. Miriam, would you like to spar with me?"

Miriam grinned. "Of course, my strong young blue giant. It would be my honor to go toe to toe with you."

Loki led Miriam to what looked like an outdoor arena. There was an area for people to sit around and watch if they wished, and a large grassy field. Loki smoothly pulled off the cape he was wearing, and slung it over one of the seats in the first row of the stadium.

The two stood opposite each other for a moment, both waiting for the other to make the first move. Miriam got bored of waiting, so she leapt forward. Instead of hitting a solid chest, she just hit air, and awkwardly stumbled to the ground. She turned and saw that Loki was already behind her.

He grabbed her by one arm, and used the momentum to swing her up over his head, and then slammed her down on the ground. Her eyes slid shut, and Loki worried that he'd gone too far. She still had the strength of a strong Midgardian, and nothing more.

Loki knelt next to the eternal, and cautiously reached forward. Then there was a sudden darting movement. He was being pinned on his back, and there was a small knife at his throat. He chuckled. "What is there about trickery and deceit you could learn from me that you don't already know?"

Miriam got up, and stretched her arms up over her head. "I'm sure that there's still plenty you could teach me." She could hardly contain a giggle. "For instance, there was this book I read down on Midgard, and I was just wondering if there was any truth to it," She held up one hand to cover her grin. "Did you really get together with a horse?"

The god of tricks rolled his eyes. "Do you believe everything that you read about in storybooks written on an entirely different planet? How would you feel if there were weird stories about you floating around?"

Miriam shrugged. "I'd own up to it. People fear what they don't understand, right? So then all I'd have to do to earn even more of their fear than I've already got is to be something that they don't understand."

They went another few rounds before heading back inside. Miriam felt proud of herself for being able to keep up at all, even if that first match was the only one she'd been able to win. Once they were settled back into Loki's room, Miriam looked at the frost giant curiously. "So do you know anything about a creature called 'Thanos'?"

Loki shrugged. "I supposed that depends on what you want to know. There's definitely someone out there, if that's what you're asking. But there's been so little interaction with him, no one knows for sure if he really is as powerful as he's described in some stories."

"Do you know where one could find Thanos if they happened to be looking?"

Loki gave Miriam a searching look. "Why are you so interested? I wouldn't think that you'd be so concerned with another threat against the Avengers."

Miriam's face flushed. "Eh, just forget about it. You know what, I've got to get back before the others notice I'm missing. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Wait," Loki's hand shot out to grab Miriam's list. "If it's really so important to you, then I'll help. I'll find out everything I can on him."

A grateful look crossed Miriam's face. "You're a true friend, Loki. I'll talk to you later. And if you ever have need of me, you know how to get in touch." Then she poofed herself back to the Avengers base, and went to the gym. She still needed to get stronger before she would be ready for whatever was going to be thrown her way.

**A/N OOh what was that document found by Miriam? It's an early version leading up to a certain storyline, but without actually touching it yet (it might be hard until I actually get around to watching the movie). Anyways, hope y'all enjoyed the chapter**


	20. Chapter 20

**Sameen Hadiya- It just so happens that Agents of Shield is one of my favorite tv shows, so I couldn't resist bringing it in. And since this takes place before the end of the show, it'll still have Lincoln (who was one of my favs ): **

If it had only been for a moment or two, then Natasha wouldn't have really been all that bothered by the odd behavior. But now that she'd been able to notice for the entirety of the past three days, she was starting to get annoyed.

So finally, when everyone else was leaving the gym, she crossed her arms over her chest. "Miriam, I need to talk to you." The Eternal stayed back while everyone else left. "I'm just going to get right to the point here. Why have you been constantly staring at me?"

Without missing a beat, Miriam responded with, "Your ass looks superb clad in leather like that."

Natasha frowned. "That is horribly inappropriate. And I'm asking you a question because I expect you to give me an honest answer."

Miriam shrugged. "I just keep trying to figure out why the Avengers let an ordinary Midgardian onto their team. I didn't want to ask because I didn't think that it's the sort of thing you'd want to talk about, you know?" There was a moment of silence, and then Miriam cleared her throat awkwardly. "Alright, now that we've got that cleared up I'm going to head back to my room, 'kay?" And she turned to leave.

Natasha reached out to grab Miriam's arm, and even though Miriam could've pulled herself away, she decided she'd wait and see what Natasha actually wanted. The assassin let out a sound of frustration. "I know how to figure out when people are lying, and you're still lying to me. It's not just me that you've been staring at. Every since your day trip to the filing room, you've been giving all of us the strangest looks. What did you find there that freaked you out so much?"

The Black Widow was much better at all of this than Miriam had given her credit for. Miriam pulled herself free, but only took a couple steps back, so that she could get the chance to breath properly again. "You know, it's really not all that big a deal. I just… read all of your personal files and am now trying to reconcile the people I read about with the people I see every day."

Natasha shook her head. "It's not like there was anything down in that room that wasn't available for anyone to read. So just tell me what it is you found, and I promise I'll leave you alone."

Miriam couldn't tell them, though. It would be too cruel, to have them all totally on edge about something that may never even come to pass. It wouldn't be fair. And Miriam did have her suspicions that that paper had been misfiled or something, because it didn't really seem like something that anyone would want any of the Avengers to come across. It was a good thing Miriam had thought to leave the document with Loki.

Miriam shrugged innocently. "I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe you Midgardians just have different tells when it comes to lying than us Eternals do. After all, we're supposed to be superior to your kind in every way you could possibly imagine." She smirked. "I think that you should probably get to that super important Avengers meeting before they start to wonder where you are." She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Natasha frowned in disgust. "You look like you're twelve."

Miriam scoffed. "No way. By Midgardian standards I've got to be at least in my late teens. And who cares either way? I'm still have a million years older than you are." She shrugged again. "I'm going back to my room. You can go and have fun at your meeting."

Before she could get away though, the Avenger grabbed her again. "I've just had an excellent idea. Why don't you come to the meeting with me? Let's not pretend like you don't want to be an Avenger."

Miriam raised one eyebrow. "I wouldn't exactly call it pretending. You guys have never done anything to encourage me to want to be like one of you. I mean, if I were able to see you guys do something impressive, like, I dunno, stopping Thanos, then maybe I could be convinced. Without that, you guys are just kind of lame."

"Yet you don't think Loki is 'lame' when he's the one who went up against us and lost?"

Miriam shook her head. "No way. Loki's cool. For one thing, he's way more open minded about aliens than any of you are. For another, he's not afraid to blast people to death who disagree with him." At Natasha's disapproving stare, Miriam tilted her head. "What? That's a quality that I can really respect in a man. And he's blue. Which looks pretty cool."

Natasha crossed her arms over her chest. "You're coming to the meeting."

Miriam quickly tried to think about different tactics she could use to get out of going. "Um, I can't. I would be consumed by a sudden and completely overwhelming urge to murder everyone in the room. Meetings do that to me. I'm not really much of one for talking things out."

Natasha stared towards the gym door, and for a moment, Miriam thought that she was safe. But then the Avenger snagged her arm on the way out, and tugged Miriam along behind her. Miriam petulantly tried to get herself free, but she didn't want to accidentally tear Natasha's arm off or anything, since she was definitely that strong already. "You're coming."

There didn't seem to be any way for Miriam to argue her way out. She could just disappear and go to her room or something, but that would seem childish, and it would only cement the Widow's theory that she was hiding something from them. Which she was. But it was for their own good, so really, it wasn't something that should be counted against her.

Natasha and Miriam were the last to arrive at the conference room. Everyone looked surprised to see Miriam there, and Rhodey shot a meaningful look in her direction. "I thought that this meeting was for Avengers only?"

Steve seemed as surprised as everyone else, but he quickly wiped the expression from his face, and shrugged. "If Miriam wants to sit in on our meetings, I think that that's something to be encouraged." He smiled at the Eternal.

Miriam sighed loudly, and sat down in one of the empty seats. She crossed her arms over her chest and sank down to make it very obvious that she did not want to be there at all. That didn't seem to occur to anyone, though. They assumed that if she didn't want to be there, she just wouldn't have shown up, like all of the other times.

Steve looked like he wanted to ask Natasha how she'd managed to convince Miriam to come to the meeting, but he figured that calling attention to it would have Miriam gone in literally seconds now that she could teleport anywhere she wanted to go, and just disappear in a flash of blue light.

Steve cleared his throat. "So there's not any particular threat that we need to deal with at the moment. That's not why you guys are here today. I just wanted to discuss the fact that-"

Miriam stood up suddenly, and her chair toppled over behind her. "Since you clearly don't have anything of importance to talk about, I'm just going to commandeer this meeting." She looked at Steve challengingly. He held his hands up in mock surrender, and sat back down in his seat. "Okay, good. So I'm just going to ask you guys directly then: What do you know about the alien named Thanos?"

Thor tilted his head. "That's the name you got caught up on during our visit to Asgard, was it not?" Miriam gave the slightest movement of her head that could be interpreted as a nod. "Did you not claim to know nothing of the owner of that name?"

Miriam shrugged. "Maybe. But what I know isn't relevant. Which is why I'm asking you guys to tell me what you know about him."

Steve spoke up again. "Not much at all. We know that he's bad, and that he's trying to collect power from all the same sources as you. We don't even know why exactly, or how many of the stones he's already gotten his hands on, if any. If there's anything you could add that would help shed light on the situation, we would be grateful to hear it."

Miriam shook her head. "I don't know anything. I've been asleep for the last ten thousand years, remember? Any sort of information I might've known is now just a bit out of date."

Wanda frowned. "But if he's truly as old as you suspect, shouldn't you at least know something of him?"

Miriam bit her lip, and thought about where she'd first heard the name Thanos. She couldn't tell the others that, though. They'd either believe her, and think that she was somehow involved in this space villain's schemes, or they wouldn't believe her, and they'd label her as someone prone to making things up.

So there wasn't really any information Miriam could give them about Thanos that they wouldn't already know. "I've never heard of anyone named Thanos before in my entire life."

Natasha narrowed her eyes at Miriam from across the table. "That's clearly a lie. Who are you protecting by not telling us whatever it is you know."

Miriam couldn't tell them. She couldn't give away another piece of her life only to be ridiculed or doubted. Thor seemed to be the first one to recognize the conflict on her face. He spoke in a soft voice (which for him, meant speaking at a normal indoors volume), "Whatever it is you wish to tell us, we will take it seriously. You've earned that much at least."

Miriam pressed her lips together, still feeling like she couldn't tell them. If she did, how would things ever be the same again? Wanda stood up, and walked over to where Miriam was standing. She reached down to put a comforting hand on Miriam's shoulder. "We need all the help we can get when it comes to stopping a bad guy. Even if you don't think it would be important, we may be able to find the significance of your information."

Vision looked at Miriam curiously. "You could easily have left already. The fact that you are still here means that you wish to help the Avengers, to help others. So here's a prime opportunity to help."

Miriam rolled her eyes and took a few steps back from the conference table. "Geez, you guys are making it sound like some major deal. It's not like I know where this guy's secret base is, or anything like that. All I know is one tiny detail that probably doesn't matter at all in the long run." She took a deep breath. "The reason I'm acting so weird about it isn't because I know who this Thanos person is. It's because… it's because I always thought that it was a name unique to the Eternals. I said before that I've gone by many names in my lifetime. But my given name, when I first came into this universe, was Thanos."

_Ar'iaal skidded around a corner, and was lucky that he didn't bash his head into the wall. While it wouldn't have hurt him, it would've slowed him down enough to cost him the game. And there was no way he was going to lose against Thanos of all people. She was just a little wimpy thing._

_He turned another corner, and dashed for the finish line. He slowed as he neared it, though, because he could already see the familiar figure standing there in wait. When he got there, he had to suffer through her cheers of victory. "Alright, alright, you win," he grumbled. "So I guess that makes you the more mature of the two of us."_

_The two friends made their way through the city, back to Ar'iaal's house. His parents were waiting anxiously, and the air of playfulness around the two youngsters disappeared immediately. Ar'iaal looked at his mother and father with concern. "What's wrong? What has happened?"_

_His mother refused to look at Thanos. "We just got word that the Newtrell clan is coming here. Their clan leader claims that our clan stole their heir."_

_Ar'iaal furrowed his eyebrows. "But who could possibly be a stolen heir? There's only…" He trailed off, and slowly turned to look at his best friend. Then he shook his head, and turned back to his parents. "No way, that's impossible. Thanos's parents left to explore, and never came back."_

_Ar'iaal's father sighed. "I'm afraid that that's only what you were told in order to appease your curiosity." He glanced at his wife before turning back to his son. "Everyone knows that you only get one chance in your life to produce an heir. Many don't even get that much of a chance. We thought that if the Newtrell clan had no heir, they would eventually begin to die out. Then we could put Thanos in her proper place, and she could lead the clan to be our friend."_

_Ar'iaal looked pissed to be learning all of this. "You kidnapped a baby to use as a political token? What the hell is wrong with you?"_

_He grabbed Thanos by the wrist, and tugged her out of the house. "Come on."_

_Thanos looked at her friend, worried by his sudden odd behavior. "You don't need to be angry with your parents, Ar'iaal. I've known for a very long time what my role was meant to be."_

_Ar'iaal paused for a moment, but didn't let go of his best friend. "You knew? You knew that my parents kidnapped you, but you didn't fight against them or run away? And why didn't you tell me?"_

_Thanos shrugged. "No matter how horrible their actions were, your parents have always been kind to me. I have no reason to hate them. And I didn't think to tell you because if our clans become allies, then I'd still be able to maintain my friendship with you. Don't you see? It's all supposed to work out perfectly."_

_Ar'iaal shook his head. "Don't you see? You're only thinking like that because it's how my parents raised you to think. I'm going to bring you back to your parents. Your real parents. And I'll stay with you there. See how my parents like it to lose their heir." He frowned. "We can't give them the name that your kidnappers gave you. How about… Annaya?" Thanos shook her head. "Cithari?" Another head shake. "Miriam?"_

_Thanos narrowed her eyes. "You want to name me after our pet?"_

_Ar'iaal grinned, some amusement returning to his eyes. "You're right, that does sound perfect. I'll just have to get used to calling you that. And you'll have to get used to responding to that. Miriam." He tried it out, and nodded. "Yeah, I think I like the sound of that."_

_Thanos- now Miriam, shrugged. "I suppose there's no reason that one name should be any better than another." She looked at her friend pleadingly. "But that doesn't mean I want to forget. I've been Thanos for so long. I have no desire to forget who I was." Ar'iaal looked at his friend as if to say, 'well what do you want me to do?' "Please, no matter what happens, even if I begin to forget, you have to remember Thanos. You have to remember me."_

_Ar'iaal smiled comfortingly. "Don't worry Th- Miriam. I promise. I promise that I'll never forget for as long as we both shall live. For eternity. Now let's find the Newtrells, and return their heir. And everything is going to be okay, Miriam. I promise."_

_Miriam let a small smile escape through her mask of worry. "I've yet to see you break a promise, Ar'iaal. I have no doubt that you will not begin to now. Let's go. Off into the unknown. Here's to hoping we'll find better things."_

_And arm in arm, the two began walking once more. And they didn't stop to rest even once, until they were far away from the city. That night, Ar'iaal stayed up to watch over Miriam as they slept. "I promise I won't ever forget," he whispered. "I won't ever forget you, Thanos." And he never did._


	21. Chapter 21

**Sameen Hadiya- I'm glad that you still like it even as things are starting to get crazier. I'm not sure when Daisy is going to come in. It might be in this chapter or not, I have no idea. I guess we'll both just have to wait and see (:**

**A/N- I'm not sure how much people are enjoying the flashbacks, but here's another one. Two flashback chapters in a row! If that's dumb, just let me know.**

Thor nodded slowly. "Yes, that would explain why you seemed so interested in the name if it is your own, and it is meant to be unique. I too would most likely find myself puzzled were I to hear of an alien named Thor going around being evil. It must be disconcerting."

Miriam nodded curtly. "Yeah."

Wanda tilted her head curiously. "So are you saying that you believe Thanos to be an Eternal like you?"

Miriam actually gave the question some thought. Is that what she believed? When she couldn't think of a satisfactory response, she just shrugged. "I don't know. Last I heard, all of the Eternals were either killed off, or they fled to some other universe. I don't think there are any left other than me."

"So they all died before you took your little nap, then?"

Miriam shrugged. "Yeah. I may or may not have tracked the cowards down and destroyed them all."

Natasha frowned. "Sometimes it's so easy to forget the things you've done. And in those moments, you're only too happy to remind us. How can you ever expect to get along with other people if you won't let go of the past?"

Miriam didn't seem all that bothered by the prospect of being alone. "It's not like there's anyone in this universe who I particularly want to get along with."

Wanda shook her head. "That's not true. What about Ar'iaal? Wouldn't you want to be with him if you could?"

Miriam crossed her arms over her chest. "And now I find myself suddenly in the mood to punch something. Or someone. Really hard. Either that or I've got another bout of indigestion. I've found that it can be difficult to tell those two feelings apart. Either way, I know that I don't want to be around any of you. No offense, or anything."

Steve shrugged. "I get it. We can be a bit overwhelming at times. It's mostly just because we're all worried about you."

Vision frowned. "I thought that we were worried about the fate of the Earth?"

Wanda jabbed Vision in the side with her elbow. "We can worry about both," she hissed with annoyance.

Miriam snorted. "Whatever. I told you guys what I know. And I already warned you that it wasn't going to be anything useful." She blinked, and appeared in her room a moment later. She'd taken to keeping the door locked and barricaded off, since she didn't need it in order to get in the room.

Speaking of Ar'iaal and Thanos had Miriam's mind wandering far into the past, where she normally preferred not to go. It was too dangerous there, because Miriam would find some stupid bit of hope that wasn't even real.

_Standing before the Newtrell clan leaders was rather intimidating to the two young Eternals. Especially when they both looked like such a mess. They were covered in mud and scrapes and bruises, and their hair was wildly windswept, their cheeks bright pink. The woman stared down at the children blankly. "City brats. What are you doing out here? Will your parents not be worried when their babes are so far from home?"_

_Ar'iaal knew that Miriam wasn't going to say anything, so he stepped forward. He cleared his throat, feeling more than just a little bit nervous. "Madame Newtrell, we have come a long way to speak with you and your husband. It has been approximately thirteen weeks since we left our city. It was difficult to track you who are constantly moving."_

_The woman was beginning to looked slightly intrigued by the start of the tale. "And why have you traveled so far? Just to glance upon my beauteous face and realize that the tales of my looks are not exaggerated?"_

_Ar'iaal shook his head. "No. We have come to return your heir to you."_

_That caught the attention of everyone in the tent, including Mister Newtrell, and all of the guards that were standing around. There were murmurs amongst them as they wondered if there was any truth to the boy's words. The woman scooted forward in her seat, and arched one eyebrow._

_It was a clear motion to continue his story. "Many years ago, your one heir was stolen away by the Madame and Mister of Bkjor City. They believed that taking your heir would eventually lead to your clan's ruin. Despite what they most likely led you to suspect, though, they did not kill the baby. They brought her back to the city with them, and raised her as though she were their own. They hoped that when the Madame and Mister of Newtrell Clan fell, they could put the baby back, and have the entire clan's loyalty."_

_Madame Newtrell couldn't keep the look of faint hope off her face. "How do you know these things, city brat?"_

_Ar'iaal took a deep breath, then let it out. "I know because my parents are the Madame and Mister of Bkjor City. As their heir, I was intended to become the Mister someday, and choose a Madame. But I could not do that. I could not do that because the person I'd grown up next to my entire life was never meant to be a Bkjor. She was meant to be a Newtrell." He gestured to Miriam, who was just sort of awkwardly standing there. "This is Miriam, heir to the Newtrell Clan. We have journeyed here so that I could return her to her home."_

_The Madame looked at Miriam closely, and beckoned for the girl to walk forward. Her eyes began to fill with tears as she took in the familiar features, almost a perfect replication of her own face. She reached out and pulled Miriam into a hug. Miriam was surprised, but then she relaxed into her true mother's arms. "I never thought that I would find my way home."_

_The Madame wept with joy. "You have, though. You are home now, darling girl. I'll never let anything happen to you ever again, I promise."_

_As she spoke, a shiver ran through Miriam, and the girl back away until she was standing safely by Ar'iaal's side. She frowned. "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me." But she did know. As soon as she'd touched her mother, she'd sensed that there was something very wrong. But Miriam was afraid to say anything about it._

_She knew that she'd always been different, but she'd figured out how to hide it a long time ago. Not even Ar'iaal knew that she was so unusual. So she just brushed aside the concern that was on her best friend's face. He spoke softly so that no one else would hear. "Hey, are you okay? If this is too much for you, then we can go and come back later."_

_The offer was tempting, but Miriam was no coward. She squared back her shoulders, and walked back up to her mother. "I'm sure that you can appreciate how utterly bizarre this all is, Madame Newtrell."_

_The woman smiled. "Please, call me Khalia. It is my given name."_

_Miriam nodded. "Of course… Khalia." Her face flushed red as she spoke the unfamiliar name. _

_Khalia turned her attention towards Ar'iaal. "You have returned me heart when I thought to never see her again, and surely against your parents' wishes at that. You have returned the Newtrell heir. You are welcome with our clan for as long as you wish to stay."_

_Ar'iaal looked at Miriam, and he could see the panic flit across her face at the thought of being left alone with complete strangers, whether they were actually her family or not. He smiled. "If it would be alright with you, Madame Newtrell, I would wander with this fearsome clan until the end of time if it meant being able to wander by the side of my dearest friend."_

_Khalia nodded. "Of course. We shall have to pack up camp and move on tonight if we do not wish to be found by the Madame and Mister of Bkjor City. I'd think that after going through so much trouble to steal my heir away from me, they won't hesitate to do everything within their power to track you down and take you back. But they're only Eternal. They make mistakes the same as everybody else."_

_Then the woman began barking orders at people, and everyone was running around, though no one was bumping into each other, which was an incredible feat on its own. When it was clear that the children were on their own, at least for the moment, they both breathed out all of the tension that they'd been holding onto._

_Miriam sank down to the ground to sit. "I feel so exhausted. Can I tell you something? There were a few times, while we were searching, that I was certain we were going to die."_

_Ar'iaal shrugged. "Well, it's not like getting a bit tired is suddenly going to age us so much that we're clutching our chests and falling to the ground. We're going to be just fine, I promise. We'll watch out for each other, like we always have."_

_Miriam frowned. "But what about your parents, Ar'iaal? They must be worried sick about you. I should have never agreed to come here. I should never have let you come along. This isn't going to end well for any of us. If your parents do catch up then every Newtrell is dead. Including me now."_

"_No. I won't let that happen." Ar'iaal spoke in a firm voice, mostly to hide the fact that he was actually freaking out. He'd just completely defied his parents in order to bring his best friend somewhere she didn't even seem to want to be in. It wasn't the ideal situation that he could find himself in, and there was no one to blame but his parents for it. _

_Miriam knew that Ar'iaal wasn't as confident as he let on, she always knew, but she was kind enough to not say anything about it. She didn't want to embarrass her friend. Plus, even when she knew that he was faking the strength, it did work to make her feel better. _

_Once some of the commotion had died down, Khalia let her thoughts return to her newly found child. She knelt down next to the girl, right on the dusty ground. She smiled comfortingly. "I know that the teachings in the cities differ a lot from the teachings of the clans. The cities don't encourage their children to reach their full potentials. But I will never do that to you. I will never hold you back. I want you to be free here, in a way that you never were before."_

_Miriam blinked a few times as she took in what she'd just been told. "I always knew. I mean, the Madame and Mister of Bkjor raised me practically as though I was their own child. They told me from the beginning that my real parents were the leaders of the Newtrell Clan. They planned to use me, as a political tool."_

_Khalia had looked confused at first, but now her expression morphed into sympathy, and regret. She pulled Miriam into a tight hug. "If only I'd been there for you… if only I hadn't taken my eyes off of you for even a moment. You are not a tool. And I will not allow you to be used by anybody. You can be happy now, here, with us. That's what I want for you. To be happy. My heir deserves the entire fucking world, and if I could give it to you, I would in less time than it takes to close my eyes. But I can't, and even if I could, it would not erase anything that has happened. You have been wronged. And I could do nothing to stop that from happening. But it will not happen again. I swear that to you. You will never be alone."_

_Miriam nodded once. "Ah, thanks. I appreciate the sentiment." She wasn't trying to sound offensive, but she did need to tell her mother how she really felt. "But the truth is that I have spent the first thirty-thousand years of my life not knowing anything of you at all, beyond what I was told by the Bkjors. You are a stranger to me, as is everyone in your clan. While I don't deny that I have a desire to get to know you better, I'm not going to pretend that everything is going to be perfect now that we've been reunited."_

_The Madame pulled away from her daughter and sat back on her heels, slightly startled. Then she relaxed her face. "I understand. I wish to cultivate a relationship with you, but your mind has been poisoned by the city. Take as much time as you need. And I hope that a day will come, eventually, where you will feel comfortable enough to acknowledge me as your mother."_

_Miriam sighed with relief that she hadn't just started some kind of fight, or something. She nodded again. "I'd like for that day to come as well."_

_Khalia got to her feet, and reached down to pull Miriam up as well. "You and your friend must bath and rest so that you may heal. Don't worry. We will wake you before we leave. I promise, you'll never be left behind."_

_Miriam felt another shiver at those words, and she just knew that there was something off. But for now, she realized that she really was tired. She found Ar'iaal, and the two managed to eventually find a tent full of cots and a couple of doctors. Once they were all patched up, they nodded off to sleep pretty quickly._

_Before she was completely unconscious, though, Miriam looked over at the cot containing her best friend. "Ar'iaal? Are you still awake?" there was no response to her whispered question. "I'm scared. Everything's going to be okay, right?" But there was no one there to ease her fear. She curled up beneath her blanket, and sighed heavily. She could do this. She had to; for Ar'iaal. She couldn't let him down. It would throw a bit of a wrench into their plans of being best friends until the end of time if she did. So Miriam was going to stay strong. She had to._

Miriam blinked in slight confusion when she realized that there was someone knocking at her door. Not feeling like tearing down the barricade she'd put up, she appeared out in the hallway, and saw that it was Thor. He looked down at her with his normal friendly smile, though something about it seemed more strained than usual.

She raised one eyebrow, though she was certain that she didn't look at all curious. "Hey… pal. Is everything okay?"

Thor frowned. "It's nothing…" he let out a long sigh. "Okay, it's pretty bad. It's about my brother, Loki."

Miriam crossed her arms over her chest to hide the sudden tension in her shoulders. "What about him? Has he suddenly gone on a rampage through New York with the intent to destroy everybody?"

Thor shook his head, and his face was now completely devoid of all of the amusement he normally held for Midgard. "My brother is missing."

Miriam's eyes widened just the tiniest bit. "Missing? As in gone?" Thor nodded in confirmation. "How could that happen? I thought that he was stuck in the mighty palace of the Asgardians or something?"

The god of thunder shrugged. "Nobody knows what happened. All we know is that he is missing. He could be anywhere, with anyone. I was… I know that you hold no loyalty to any Asgardians, but I was hoping that you could help us find him. Please. He's my brother."

"I'll help," Miriam's response shot out before she even had the chance to think about it, surprising even herself. She cleared her throat and shrugged, then spoke in a much more casual tone. "I mean, it's not like I've got anything else going on at the moment. So I may as well, right? I'll help."

Thor nodded gratefully. "Thank you."

"Whatever," Miriam muttered, starting to feel uncomfortable. "It's just something to do."

The Asgardian smiled. "Regardless, thank you." Miriam shrugged and stared at the floor, to hide the way that she looked so worried. Where the hell had Loki gone? What kind of trouble had he gotten himself mixed up in this time?


	22. Chapter 22

Miriam looked around Asgard, but this time she wasn't looking around in awe at the massive city with its physics defying buildings. She was looking around with inquisitive eyes, ready to spot any hint that could lead to where Loki had gone off to. She felt a clench in her stomach at the thought that Loki had decided to leave without telling her first. Which meant that she was basically hoping something bad had happened. Which probably made her the worse friend between the two.

Thor looked at the Eternal hopefully. "Have you found anything?"

Miriam rolled her eyes. "We've been here for all of five minutes. Relax, we're going to find him. If you don't then you have permission to break my knee again." Thor wanted to point out how Miriam had broken her own knee, but he knew that now wasn't really the time for that.

Miriam closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, then tried to block out all of the excess noise caused by the random Asgardians moving about in their own city. She tried to focus solely on her blue friend, hoping that his mind would stand out above others because it was so strong.

Then someone bumped into her, breaking her concentration. It had been a really long time since Miriam had needed to focus her powers for any reason. Before the Asgardians had taken her down she'd only cared about causing as much destruction as possible, so it hadn't mattered whether or not she could hone her abilities to precision.

She scowled at the Asgardian, and was tempted to kill the woman for her interference. Thor must've figured out that the look on her face was a murderous one, because he gently put one hand on Miriam's shoulder. "We have greater things to worry about than that woman. Finding my brother is more important."

Miriam knew that that was true, so she closed her eyes again. Loki had to be somewhere. She'd already heard stories from the Avengers about how tricky he could be, and about how he could find ways to disguise himself as almost anyone if it would help him escape. But Miriam didn't think that Loki would just run off like that. He had no reason to.

But after wandering around on Asgard for almost two days straight with no sign of Loki was starting to make Miriam think that he wasn't even on the stupid planet. "Maybe we should try checking in with the Jotun. Sometimes people like to return to their roots, maybe?"

Thor frowned. "I do not think my brother has a strong affinity for his people."

Miriam shrugged. "It's got to be worth a shot, though, right? Because as far as I know, your brother doesn't have a strong affinity for any people. Like at all." She couldn't help the little bit of desperation that leaked out into her voice. "There's got to be something else we can do, right? I mean, we can find him."

The Asgardian looked at Miriam carefully. "You care about my brother's fate." It wasn't even a question, he just said it like he was stating a fact.

Miriam cleared her throat and narrowed her eyes. "Of course not. I don't care about any of you pathetic losers." She turned away from Thor and looked around. There were a few Asgardians giving her strange looks, like they could tell just by looking at her that she wasn't one of them.

Thor nodded. "Of course not. Perhaps we should return to Midgard, then? It doesn't seem as though we'll be able to make any further progress here."

Miriam grabbed Thor's elbow, and a moment later, they were both standing in the middle of the Avenger's training room. Miriam scowled at Wanda and Sam, who were currently in the middle of sparring while Vision and Natasha watched. Sam paused but Wanda didn't, so she accidentally sent him flying across the room.

Before he could slam into the wall and potentially break his spine, Miriam appeared in the air right in front of him, grabbed him, and appeared back on the ground all in a matter of a second. She dropped him down onto the floor with no gentleness, and then turned to stomp out of the training room.

Wanda helped pull Sam to his feet, and they both looked kind of confused. "If she's going to look so angry about saving my life, then maybe she'd be better off letting someone else do it next time."

Wanda smacked Sam in the shoulder. "She isn't angry about saving you. She's clearly angry at herself right now." She looked up at Thor. "I'm assuming that your search for your brother has yielded nothing?"

Thor nodded. "Unfortunately. They were close friends. That is why Miriam is finding it so difficult to believe that it is not within her capabilities to be able to track him down."

Vision tilted his head. "We've already witnessed that Miriam has great potential inside of her. Perhaps she is so angry because she knows that if she had her full powers right now, then she'd easily be able to find one missing Loki."

Miriam went up to her room, using her legs to climb the stairs like a normal person would. She wanted the benefit of being able to stomp up the stairs. It didn't really accomplish anything, but it did make her feel slightly better, without even having to completely destroy anything first.

She didn't expect her trip to be interrupted by Steve, who seemed to be waiting for her at the top of the landing. Miriam scowled at him and contemplated just disappearing to her room now, since it's not like he'd be able to stop her or anything. He seemed to be able to read that look on her face, because he slowly held his hands up, palms facing the Eternal. "Wait. I just want to talk to you."

Begrudgingly, Miriam nodded, and stayed where she was on the top step. "What do you want to talk about?"

Steve sighed. "Listen, I know what it's like to lose a friend. To think that you're never going to see them again. But I was wrong when it came to my friend, and you're going to be wrong when it comes to yours. That's all."

He turned to walk away, but something in Miriam made the decision to open her mouth before she could even think about it. "Wait," Steve paused, and turned around to face her again. Miriam gulped. She knew that she could easily find whatever information she wanted by sifting through the Avenger's head, but she also knew that it wouldn't truly satisfy her. "Your friend… what was his name?"

Steve smiled sadly, and motioned for Miriam to follow him to the conference room. So she followed. Once they were inside, Steve pointed to a little picture hanging on the wall, amongst the million other pictures and newspaper clippings that decorated the room. "That's him and me. His name was Bucky."

Miriam looked at the picture with an unreadable face. "You both look very happy there. What happened to him?"

Steve sighed. "I couldn't save him from falling."

Miriam continued to stare at the picture so she couldn't have to turn around and look at Steve. "But you tried, right? You tried to save him?"

"Of course I did. But after he fell, I never looked for him. I should've, but I just didn't."

Miriam's eyes shifted to one of the newspaper articles talking about how the Avengers saved New York from being invaded by aliens. "Where is he now? You said that you saw him again, right? So where is he?"

Steve didn't answer that, and Miriam had the feeling that it was because even he didn't know. He cleared his throat, then shifted the conversation back to Miriam. "This isn't just about Loki, is it? It's about that other friend of yours. The one you seem afraid to talk about. You don't want to lose another friend, right? Because you're not sure how you'd survive that."

Miriam finally turned around, and the expression on her face could almost be described as a goofy one. She was clearly trying to hide whatever she was really feeling from Steve. "Oh, you mean Ar'iaal? Who cares about him? I gave up on him a long time ago. I've been living without him for longer than there have been intelligent beings inhabiting this planet. I never even bothered looking for him? What would've been the point? He was just an old friend, who outgrew his welcome." Her voice sounded light, but her eyes were filled with fear. Steve wasn't sure what the girl was afraid of, though. Maybe afraid of being alone. Wasn't that what everyone feared in the end?

Steve wasn't mean enough to suggest that, though. He knew she'd just deny it anyways. "Well, we're going to find Loki either way, I can promise you that much. You're not the only one who's worried about him."

Miriam chuckled. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure that Thor's the only one worried about him. Well, this has certainly been a fun little chat, but I really should be going. Places to be, people to dismember." She disappeared, but Steve didn't bother going up to her room to follow her. She wasn't going to hurt anyone, he knew that much.

Miriam got bored of just sitting up in her room after just a few minutes, so she decided to take her leave from the Avengers facility, at least for now. She wasn't really in the mood to be around all of those optimistic little freaks.

Since she didn't know much about the actual layout of Midgard and she didn't want to risk getting caught in the middle of a wall, she began bouncing around, only going as far as she could see so that she would never accidentally appear somewhere unpleasant.

It wasn't long before she stopped for a quick break, and then she heard the sound of someone screaming. Miriam's first instinct was to just move on, because the problems of stupid little Midgardians had nothing to do with her. But then she realized that if she found the source of the noise, maybe she'd find the opportunity to beat the shit out of someone. The Avengers were too strong, and they'd stop her before she could get too worked up, but random Midgardians wouldn't even know what hit them.

So Miriam made her way to the screams, which were beginning to grow fainter. They were coming from inside a building. Miriam had to go inside and run up the stairs since she didn't want to get herself caught in the floor somewhere. Even though the screams had stopped, Miriam knew as soon as she reached her destination because the door was smashed off it's hinges.

The Eternal bounced inside the apartment with almost no caution, and looked around. She hadn't realized that there were other aliens living on Midgard. But what else could that thing be? He was very tall, with lots of muscles and a mean face. There were strange cords that seemed to grow right out the back of his head and he was almost completely gray.

Miriam frowned as she walked over to him. A quick glance around the room showed three dead bodies, all of them with a gaping hole in their chests where their livers should've been located. Or maybe it was their hearts? Miriam wasn't exactly an expert on Midgardian biology.

She looked up at the alien with a ferocious look, and to her surprise, he didn't jump out and immediately attack her. He just looked her over for a moment before turning and leaping out of the window. "Oh no you don't," Miriam muttered. She started to chase after him, but then she heard someone shouting for her to freeze, so she just kept going towards the window, and then there was a small prick of pain in her back.

When Miriam opened her eyes, she forced herself to stay calm, and to carefully assess the situation. She was in a room that was entirely white, and the walls were a strange texture. Miriam narrowed her eyes at whatever kind of primitive imprisonment this was supposed to be. And she could tell it was supposed to be a prison by the fact that there wasn't even a door that she could see anywhere.

Miriam wasn't really in the mood to mess around with random people, and she decided that she'd just head back to the Avengers building. Unfortunately, she didn't know the layout of her current location, so she'd have to find a way out so she could orient herself.

A moment later she was on the other side of the cell's walls, and found an entire room of people staring up at her with wide eyes. After a quick pause, most of them pulled out some strange looking weapons. Miriam really wished that she was still indestructible. Then she could just leave without hurting anyone.

Someone walked towards her, and she found that she recognize the face. From the look he was giving her, he recognized her too. Miriam wasn't sure yet whether that was going to end up being a good thing or a bad thing. "You were the one who answered my call a while back, right?"

Miriam nodded. "Yup. Like I said, I'm a friend of the Avengers." She looked around. "So who are you guys supposed to be?"

A tall man with dark skin stepped forward, looking confused. "How did you get out of there?"

"Oh, that was easy. I don't exactly need a door to make an entrance." To prove her point, she appeared on the other side of the room, and it took a moment for someone to spot her, and then everyone turned to face her again. "I guess I never introduced myself properly last time. My name's Miriam. And I'm the person who could totally kick all of your asses if I wanted to."

There were footsteps coming from outside the large room, and then someone else walked in. She was immediately on guard when she saw Miriam just standing there. "Who let her out?" Miriam rolled her eyes, already bored with this. The newcomer looked at Miriam with harsh eyes. "Why did you kill those people?"

Miriam blinked once, then snorted. "Sorry to pop your soap sphere, but that wasn't me. Believe me, if I was going to kill someone, you'd know. Mostly because your entire planet would be nothing more than a pile of rubble floating through space. Anyways, it was nice meeting you all, but I really should be on my way."

The woman in the doorway sounded pissed. "How could you kill other inhumans? When the world is against us, we have to learn to stick together!"

Miriam narrowed her eyes. "The hell is an 'inhuman'? I didn't realize Midgard holds subspecies." she shrugged. "Not that I really care either way. I'm just going to-" Before Miriam could say anything else, she found herself flying backwards, and then she felt the pain of smashing into a concrete wall. That didn't stop her from getting up and glaring at the woman who'd just attacked her. "I really think that there's some kind of misunderstanding going on here."

The guy who Miriam had talked to briefly before grabbed the attacker's arm. He spoke softly. "Daisy…"

Miriam didn't feel like sticking around to see the conclusion of this whole melodramatic affair. So she appeared outside of the large room, and then made a ran for it. When she came across hallways, she would appear at the opposite ends of them, and she soon came across a thick metal door. She appeared on the other side, and from there, had to keep going for a while before she recognized her surroundings. That's when she was able to make her way back to the Avengers building.

She found Steve still standing around in the conference room. "Some crazy people tried to lock me up in a colorless room and then some crazy lady tried to kill me and I think that your planet is full of more crazy people than almost any other planet I've seen before in my entire life."

Steve frowned. "Are you hurt?"

Miriam shook her head. "Of course not. I'm not stupid enough to let them hurt me. I just thought I'd let you know that there's crazy people around."

Steve sighed. "I'll look into it." Then he got an alert about in incoming call, and Miriam took that as her cue to head back to her room. The barricade was still up, though it did look like someone had started to take it down. She rolled her eyes and went inside. Maybe it was time for a nice little nap.


End file.
